ISSN: 2642-6250
Authors: Chaulagain K* and Nepal A
Coronavirus (COVID-19) belongs to severe acute respiratory syndrome-corona virus-2 (SARS-Cov-2) family which is characterized as a pandemic by WHO in March 2020. With the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic by WHO, Nepal imposed nationwide lockdown to control the transmission chain of the disease. The lockdown extended almost for 4 months which affected health system operations and management. The stress in the health system affected the access and utilization of maternal health services. As estimated by UNFPA, the pandemic could double or triple maternal deaths in Nepal by next year, due to low uptake of maternal health services such having skilled healthcare providers assist in births, delivering in health facilities, or accessing contraception. Fear of disease transmission and low trust in the maternal health services among the women, families and communities is also causes of the low uptake of the services. The COVID-19 is threatening the achievement that Nepal has acquired in maternal health outcomes in the last decade, therefore, the government need to prioritize the maternal health services during the pandemic era to avoid preventable deaths and accelerate the progress toward sustainable development goals. Appropriate interventions such as promoting hand hygiene, improve local government engagement, training and capacity building of the health workers to run the regular maternal health services, adoption of the technical guidance of the WHO for the treatment of the pregnant/postpartum women with COVID-19 symptoms/diagnosed case must be initiate by the government at each level of care. Context-specific awareness raising and behavior change communication strategy should be adopted to promote fact related COVID-19 among the community. Access to quality of care is the constitutional rights of every Nepali citizen which must be ensured at any time at any cost.
Keywords: COVID-19; WHO; ANC; United Nations
