Paropakar Maternity and Women’s Hospital is the fully fledged hospital dedicated to the health of the pregnant women, female and the infants. It is located in the Thapathali of the Kathmandu valley in front of the Norvic Hospital. This hospital is one of the leading maternity hospital of Nepal. Women from different part of the country come here for the better treatment . It is the semi government hospital with the leading Gynaecologists and Midwives. The hospital is also popularly known as the Prasuti Griha. It is the tertiary hospital located in the central part of the city. The hospital is situated on the north bank of the Bagmati River. It is  not only providing services to the women but it also carries a history of teaching learning activities, training and research in reproductive health. Most critical equipment in the hospital is operated throughout the day and night.

In additional days, the hospital has planned to expand its services and facilities with additional loads. The hospital is organized by the nongovernmental community based organization known as Paropakar. It is governed by its Board where the Chairman is appointed by the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the director of the hospital acts as the member secretary. The hospital has the staff capacity of 627 of which 54 are doctors, 127 are nurses, 40 paramedical, 82 administrative and finance, 247 support staff and 27 others. Residential facilities are available for doctors and nurses working in the hospital and additionally there is a hostel for duty doctors as well as residents..

History of Paropakar Maternity and Women’s Hospital

Paropakar Maternity and Women’s Hospital was established in August 1959 with the initiative taken by the Paropakar. The hospital was established by the Late King Mahendra in the memory of the Late Indra Rajya Laxmi Devi Shah, who died due to the postpartum haemorrhage related to the pregnancy causes.  It was renamed as ” Paropakar Maternity and Women’s Hospital” since 2nd December 2007 in place of ”Paropakar Shree Panch Indra Rajya Laxmi Maternity Hospital”.

Services of Paropakar Maternity and Women’s Hospital

The hospital has provided a wide range of qualitative and care related to the reproductive health of the women. It is also the research centre for the various diseases and causes related to infertility in the Women. The hospital also practiced the active Antenatal Check Up through empowering the pregnant women by giving a certain amount of money to those who have done all four antenatal check ups. It also arranges various programs and camps related to the awareness of the importance of reproductive health in lifestyle.  The services provided by the hospitals are as follows

1. Outpatient Department

The OPD service of the hospital is open every day of the year from 8:30 am to 4: 00 pm. The patients have to take the ticket from the ticket counter just beside the entrance of the main building of the Hospital. Even though it is the only maternity hospital, it has many other services under the reproductive health of the women. There are many clinics such as infertility, diseases related to the reproductive organ, oncology department and infertility clinics.  The hospital also has Antenatal Check Up clinics which is mainly focused on the health of the pregnant women and the foetus. These clinics are run by the organization and they are free of cost to the patients. 

In the infertility clinics, the patients come with the complaint of not being able to birth the child. If the infertility is treatable, the hospital provides proper treatment and care to the couples but if it is untreatable they are provided with the other options such as surrogacy and in vitro fertilization. There are private clinics of the hospital that are run after 4 pm.  It is usually designed for those who cannot come to the real OPD time of the hospital due to the work.

2.  Diagnostic Services

The hospital has many diagnostic and imaging facilities. It uses modern technology to rule out the problem of women. They provide USG service, pathology and haematology. The hospital also conducted the test to rule out the reproductive cancers in the women. They provide pap smear which is the main test to rule out the abnormalities in the uterus of the women.  Through pathology many bacteria are ruled out which is causing the infection in the reproductive part of the body. The haematology helps to rule out the abnormalities in the hormone level of the body. Urine tests are also conducted to rule out the abnormalities and pregnancy in women.  USG helps to dictate the clear picture of the pregnancy and abnormalities in the reproductive parts of the women. 

3. Community Programs

In addition to clinical services, the hospital also arranges many mobile clinics and outreach clinics with the partnership with different NGOs and other international organizations. The hospital sends doctors and nurses for managing the community health outposts in order to deliver healthcare services at the grass root level. It also implements government- sponsored programs in the hospital for the benefit of the general public such as; Safe Motherhood Programme, Hysterectomy Programme, Antenatal Check Up and Adolescence Reproductive Health. Through this  Adolescent Reproductive Health program the young girls are educated about the knowledge related to reproductive health. Different counseling programs are arranged to know about the attitude of the adolescence towards the changes in their body. It also helps the young girls to make better decisions related to their health and pregnancy. 

4. In Patient Department

It is the tertiary central hospital with the capacity of 415 beds out of which 336 is allocated to indoor admissions of which 241 are Obstetrics, 61 are gynae and 34 are for newborn. The rest of the 79 are the service beds. The skilled gynecologists and midwives provide proper care and treatment to the women. They have fully equipped labour rooms in which the normal delivery is done and the minor complications are treated. Separated ward blocks for Obstetrics and Gynecology, Child Care centre and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) along with the postnatal care centre are present in the Hospital. The IPD service also provides food to pregnant women. They encourage women to lactate their child as soon as they are in good condition. The nurses and the midwives give them different health teaching related to the breastfeeding and proper child care.

5. Immunization Centre

These are clinics where necessary and WHO recommended vaccines and immunization is provided to the infant. They provide this service for free as it is run by the Nepal government to combat the Infant Mortality Rate. The hospital provides the vaccine card in which the schedule and the time for the vaccine are mentioned. It also contains other vaccines which are not under the WHO and Nepal government recommendation. These vaccines cost a certain amount of money. This centre has encouraged women to take their child for the vaccination and the immunization. 

6. Operation Theatre and Minor Procedures

The hospital also has the well equipped operation theatre to perform the caesarian section and the hysterectomy. Many minor procedures like IUD insertion, pap smear and perineal care are also done in the seperate room . 

7. Family Planning Centre

This centre helps to deal with the problems related to family planning. It provides services like postpartum teaching and distribution of family planning items like contraceptive pills, condom and insertion of IntraUterine Contraceptive Device and Norplant. 

This is one of the only fully operated maternity and women’s hospitals which has been providing quality care and treatment to the women.