title: State of midwives in Nepal: HRH to improve maternal and neonatal health and survival.
abstract: Improving health and survival of mothers and newborns depends on the delivery of evidence-based cost effective interventions through a skilled care provider. Evidence suggests that midwives are compassionate skilled care providers to mothers, and ensuring these skilled human resources is a key to progress towards Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5. With this in mind, this article analyses the state of midwifery in Nepal and what strategies are needed to ensuretheir accessibility and availability. In Nepal, as a result of community mobilization through Female Community Health Volunteers for birth preparedness and complication readiness, there has been a demand for skilled care at birth. However the supply of skilled birth attendants has been inadequate both in terms of number as well as quality of care.
authors.affiliation: International Maternal and Child Health, Department of Women's and Children's Health, Uppsala University, Sweden. ashish.k.c@kbh. uu.se
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kc
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bajracharya
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D040361:Healthy People Programs; D006801:Humans; D007226:Infant Mortality; D007229:Infant Welfare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008427:Maternal Health Services / Q000592:standards / Q000600:supply & distribution; D008428:Maternal Mortality; D008429:Maternal Welfare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008880:Midwifery / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009390:Nepal; D011247:Pregnancy; D058996:Quality Improvement