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It Takes More than a Village: Building a Network of Safety in Nepal’s Mountain Communities

  • Report from the Field
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Abstract

Purpose This report from the field details the ways that one small maternal child health NGO, which began its work in Tibet and now works in the mountain communities of Nepal, has established a model for integrated healthcare delivery and support it calls the “network of safety.” Description It discusses some of the challenges faced both by the NGO and by the rural mountain communities with whom it partners, as well as with the government of Nepal. Conclusion This report describes and analyzes successful efforts to reduce maternal and infant mortality in a culturally astute, durable, and integrated way, as well as examples of innovation and success experienced by enacting the network of safety model.

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Notes

  1. http://www.summitpost.org/pregnancy-and-altitude/286351.

  2. See [10] on the social ecologies concept as related to maternal health and death in Mongolia and Craig et al. [7] on impacts of mountain environments in Nepal on patterns of resort for health seeking behavior.

  3. See https://www.usaid.gov/nepal/maternal-and-child-health as well as the 2013 Lancet series on maternal and child health and mortality.

  4. http://blogs.worldbank.org/health/maternal-and-child-health-nepal.

  5. Partners in health human rights approach https://donate.pih.org/page/s/declaration.

  6. Diagonal HC models stuff from Re-imagining GH.

  7. www.oneheartworld-wide.org.

  8. Similar results are seen in reduction of infant deaths: in Dolpo from 85 to 90 deaths out of 1000 births to 75, then to 35, and in the last 2 years between 3 and 5 deaths; in Baglung from 300 newborn deaths (again out of 8000 deliveries) to 150, to less than 50, and now to zero newborn deaths in 2015.

  9. See the Nepal Safer Motherhood Project: http://www.nsmp.org/pregnancy_childbirth_nepal/index.html.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthro, History, Social Med, UCSF School of Medicine, 3333 Calif. St. Laurel Heights, San Francisco, CA, 94143, USA

    Vincanne Adams

  2. Department of Anthropology, Dartmouth College, 6047 Silsby Hall, Hanover, NH, 03755, USA

    Sienna Craig

  3. One Heart World-Wide, 1818 Pacheco Street, San Francisco, CA, 94116, USA

    Arlene Samen

  4. One Heart World-Wide, House No. 496 Dhara Marga, Ward 4, Maharajgunj, Kathmandu, Nepal

    Surya Bhatta

Authors
  1. Vincanne Adams
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  2. Sienna Craig
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  3. Arlene Samen
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  4. Surya Bhatta
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Correspondence to Sienna Craig.

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Adams, V., Craig, S., Samen, A. et al. It Takes More than a Village: Building a Network of Safety in Nepal’s Mountain Communities. Matern Child Health J 20, 2424–2430 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-016-1993-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-016-1993-1

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