The Phonsaly Provincial Hospital was relocated to Boun Neua in October 2014, completed with new facilities and medical equipment; and proper water and sanitation facilities.
Dr Phengsavanh, Vice-Director of the hospital; and lead for Maternal and Child Health from Phonsaly Province for the central level National Committee of Mother and Child (NCMC) informed us that she sees an average of 20-30 pregnant women on a monthly basis for antenatal checks, about 1-3 women each day. Since the free delivery services were implemented in February this year, she has seen an increase in the number of pregnant women who use the free antenatal checks and delivery services.
Pregnant women coming to the hospital are receiving 40,000 kips (equivalent to 5 US dollars) reimbursement for travelling expenses, and this helped to ease the financial barriers for many families. They would often refer their pregnant friends, who would also receive the 40,000 kips transportation reimbursements.
Dr Phengsavanh says that antenatal checks are important as it will allow her to assess if the foetus is in the correct position, and preparation can be made for caesarean delivery if needed. She has done 2 caesarean deliveries this month, a total of about 18 caesareans since the beginning of the year. The hospital has also supported about 15-22 outreach cases for home delivery since January this year.
The current free maternal and child health program covers 6 out of 7 districts in Phonsaly Province, except Khua District, and Dr Phengsavanh hopes to see the program extended to all districts.
There are 72 villages in Boun Neua District, with around 5,000 families comprising of ethnic Lao and ten other ethnic minority groups. The health staffs in the district worked hard despite the many challenges they faced which includes mountainous terrains, language barriers, low education level due to high dropout rates from primary to secondary education which also impact the mother’s ability to improve nutrition and health of their children.
Dr Phengsavanh has seen an improvement in the health and well-being of pregnant women who comes in for antenatal checks and delivery. She hopes that Lux Government will continue to support the programme. There have been no maternal or child deaths reported from this district since January 2015.
