Producing and recruiting midwives a must for reducing maternal mortality in Nepal

Dr Mingmar G Sherpa, former director general of Health Department, on the challenges in reducing maternal deaths.

Nepal reduced its maternal mortality rate (MMR) from 539 per 100,000 live births in 1996 to 239 in 2016, which was hailed as a huge achievement. And for this, the country even received the Millennium Development Goals award. The country committed to further bringing the MMR down to 70 per 100,000 live births to meet the Sustainable Development Goals target by 2030.