What is it like to be a pregnant woman in Nepal?

Out of everyone here I'm probably the farthest from understanding what it's like to be a mother let alone a woman in Nepal. It's been a question that I've been wrestling with constantly. It goes beyond knowing that there are challenges with infrastructure and scarce resources. The average income in Nepal is around $350, and in the places we visited represent the bottom. This experience has given me a foundation of context to really have empathy for the situation.

The roads here are being destroyed or obstructed on a daily basis by the monsoons. It's fantastic that we have SUVs (Indian made Mahindra Scorpios) to drive us around with air conditioning, because even if I do workout. "Walking" around here is brutal. The Terai region of Nepal is the hill country, but mountains here are the Himalayas. 

A picture of our Mahindras in the clouds

Few women have access to a car, but the roads are constantly getting blocked by landslides. A motorcycle can negotiate narrowed roads, but sitting side saddle for a few hours to get to a clinc / birthing center / hospital seems unreasonable while in labor.

In the distance by the river you can see a house. Our hike down from the end of the road to a birthing center took us almost to the bottom of the valley.

Walking is the most reliable way to get around. Some of the remote outposts in Dailekh district take 5 days to walk to from the main village. 

I tried doing a own test "imagining I'm a pregnant mother" by spinning my Laerdal backpack around (improvised Mama Natalie). It provably weight around 15-25lbs or 7-11 kg.

While I'm smiling the picture, this sucked. I couldn't see where I was putting my feet on the slope. Negotiating steep slopes with the pack keeping me off balance. I almost rolled down the hill multiple times.

The best road leading to the birthing center.

I'm sure a pregnant mother would be more comfortable moving around than I was. At least I had a pair of hiking shoes on that kept me from slipping and gave me sure footing. Most people here wear the plastic and foam flip flops you can get for a few dollars in the US. 

Barrett clearing a gap that cut the road

It isn't hard to imagine a pregnant woman having to negotiate steep slopes in the pouring rain wearing flip flops. 

Nepali women are incredibly resilient and loving. During an antenatal visit, I saw a mother recite back why iron supplementation is important. The ANM giving care to this mother was amazing. To manage the health of mothers in the surrounding valley is a huge challenge with scarcely any resources. Below is a picture of all her sterilizing equipment.

There are pictures of female community health workers all in their uniform sarees in another post. Hopefully it conveys the overwhelming pride they have in what they do.

Nepali women do tough work. They carrly huge loads on their heads across mouhtsins.  They grind dal for everyone to eat. It's all tough. This has been a humbling experiecne to see how hard life is for people on the other side of the world. 

Jenny teaching our host to resuscitate NeoNatalie.