KATHMANDU: President Bidya Devi Bhandari has said Paropakar Maternity and Women’s Hospital has been established as the country’s specialized health institution related to obstetrics and gynecology.

At the 63rd anniversary of the Hospital and inauguration of first Human Milk Bank in Kathmandu on Friday, President Bhandari shared that the Hospital has significant contribution to reduce maternity and infant mortality rate by continuously providing services to women and infants for the past 63 years.

She opined that the Hospital has been providing obstetrics and gynecology services and infant-related health services in a low cost.

The President expressed happiness over the hospital which had started its services from 40 beds before six decades providing services from 479 beds at present.

President Bhandari stated that establishment of Human Milk Bank ‘Amrit Kosh’ at the initiative of the Hospital has been considered as the important step in the sector of maternity and child health sector.

“Amrit Kosh collects milk donated by mothers, refined and stored it and distribute to needy children”, she mentioned.

The President expressed the belief that the establishment of Amrit Kosh would help reduce maternity and infant mortality rate as well as to create public awareness about the importance of breastfeeding.

“I have felt that the hospital management is active to provide smooth and quality services through the use of modern technology provided to the hospital in order to make it technology-friendly”, she viewed.

There are challenges before the country to prepare human resources by finding out the special needs of health services, she said, adding “Support would be obtained from the hospital’s experience, service expansion while preparing short-term and long-term plan in human resources development of health sector.”

Similarly, State Minister for Health and Population Hirachandra KC said that they were expanding obstetric services in all seven provinces and 77 districts. He pledged to bring in high-tech machines in future to provide related services.

Hospital’s Director Dr Amir Babu Shrestha mentioned that the Hospital helped minimize the high infant and maternal mortality rate. He shared that of the 33,855 women admitted in the Hospital in the last fiscal year, 26,605 had been treated under obstetric services while 4,930 were treated under gynecology service.

Likewise, 24,369 expecting mothers gave birth to 24,593 infants under obstetric services, according to him.

Furthermore, full-breast feeding policy has been implemented in the Hospital considering the health of the newborn babies and the Hospital was declared mother-infant friendly hospital by achieving various 20 indices determined by the Hospital.

On the occasion, President Bhandari inaugurated ‘Amrit Kosh’ (Human Milk Bank) in the Hospital which aims to collect the milk from new mothers and provide it to the infant after fulfilling necessary processing of the milk, said director Shrestha.

Those infants deprived of his/her mother’s milk due to health issues would get the supplementary breast milk from the Bank which could contribute in reducing infant mortality rate, informed Dr Kalpana Upadhyay Subedi.

The Hospital established on the Krishna Janmastami in 2016 BS with 40 beds has expanded to 479 beds at present.

Construction process has been initiated to build 50-bed facility for obstetrics and pediatric services at Tarkeshower and Chandragiri Municipality.

The government of Nepal and Germany are extending their support for this, informed Dr Shrestha.