POLICY PROSPECTIVE, SERVICE PROVISION AND GAP IN MATERNAL HEALTH IN NEPAL

Safe motherhood has been recognized as a right of every woman since long ago. But still, every day significant numbers of women are dying due to preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth; mostly in developing countries and in rural setting due to unavailability and/or poor quality maternal health services. Available health services are not also utilized properly due to lack of awareness and other socio-cultural factors. The objective of this paper was to review relevant literatures to describe the gap regarding policy prospective and maternal health service provision in Nepal. This paper built on a review of relevant literatures published in between 1990 and 2017. The review revealed that Nepal has provided topmost priority on maternal health since 1990 and it has been getting priority agenda in several policy papers. Progressive improvement in maternal health has been observed in between 1990 and 2017, but achieving national and international policy targets within the specified time frame are still challenging. It is needed to maximize efforts to sustain the current achievement and make further progress on maternal health