National Safe motherhood Policy, 1998| Safe motherhood Policy of Nepal

A National Safe motherhood Policy was formulated and endorsed in 1998.Safe Motherhood was identified as a major component of Primary Health Care. In July 2006 a “National Policy on Skilled Birth Attendants “was approved by the government as a supplementary to the national Safe Motherhood Policy

The policy placed emphasis on;

• strengthening maternity care including family planning services at all levels of the health care delivery system ,
• strengthening technical capacity of maternal health care providers at all levels and
• strengthening referral services for emergency obstetric care.

Policy Statement

• Main thrust is to reduce maternal and neonatal in Nepal
• Improvement of maternity care services including family planning at all levels of health care system and in the community
• Improve the general status of women by providing programs aims at bringing about attitudinal, behavioral and societal change regarding women’s health concerns.

Policy Directives

• Providing maternity care which is preventing and promotive in nature to all women through the existing Primary Health Care (PHC) network.
• Empowering women and their families with formation/education for safe motherhood
• Encouraging the active participation of NGOs at the community level.
• Ensuring the provision of maternity care at the community level as close to the peoples homes as possible
• Ensuring the availability of resources in terms of appropriately trained health care providers, necessary essential drugs and equipment and adequate physical facilities at all levels

Policy Objective

General:

To reduce mortality and morbidity among women during pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period through the adoption of a combination of health and health related measures.

Specific:

• To increase the accessibility , availability and utilization of maternal health care facilities.
• To strengthen the technical capacity of maternal health care providers at all levels of the health care system.
• To strengthen the referral services for maternity care, particularly at the district level and with specific emphasis on appropriate referral high-risk cases.
• To increase the availability and use of contraceptives for child spacing and family planning purposes.
• To raise awareness about the importance of the health care of women and in particular, maternal care and safe motherhood.
• To improve the legal and socio-economic status of women.

Strategies

• Promoting inter-sectoral collaboration in order to attain the aims of safe motherhood,
• Strengthening and expanding basic maternity care services, including family planning, at all institutional levels,
• Raising the status of women so that maternal morbity and mortality will be reduced,
• Promoting research on Safe Motherhood.

Policies and programs on Safe motherhood in Nepal

Second Long Term Health Plan (1997 – 2017)

Safe Motherhood Policy (1998)

National Safe Motherhood Program (2002–2017)

National Safe Abortion Policy (2003)

Maternal Incentive Scheme (2005)

Safe Motherhood and Neonatal Health Long Term Plan (2006–2017)

National Policy on Skilled Birth Attendants (2006) 2006 National Free Delivery Policy (2009)

Nepal Health Sector Programme Implementation Plan II (2010 – 2015)

Nepal Health Sector Support Strategy (2015-2020) ¨

Safe Motherhood Information Education Communication (IEC) strategy (2003- 2008)