Government mulls covering childbirth-related lab test costs

Proposal follows public outrage over a poor woman forced to give birth on a pavement outside Rajbiraj hospital after her husband could not afford blood tests.

Amid criticism over an incident in which a poor woman in labour was forced to give birth outside a hospital in Rajbiraj last month, the Family Welfare Division under the Department of Health Services has proposed free lab services worth Rs1,845 for women delivering at hospitals under the safe motherhood programme.