An interview with Dr Binod Bindu Sharma. Binod completed his PhD at The University of Newcastle and Hunter Medical Research Institute under the supervision of Distinguished Laureate Professor Roger Smith, where he developed strategies to reduce maternal mortality in his home country of Nepal.
After returning to Nepal, Binod now works as a Director, Ministry of Social Development, Province Government, Gandaki, Pokhara, Nepal, and talks about how he has put what he learnt in Australia into practice to save lives in Nepal.

In many low-income countries, such as Nepal and Indonesia, maternal deaths are not reliably recorded. The estimates of maternal mortality in Nepal are one in 338 pregnancies, while in Finland the rate is one in 33,333. As women in Nepal have more pregnancies, the lifetime risk of dying during pregnancy may be as high as one in 50. The low maternal death rate in Finland, Australia, and other developed countries indicates that the majority of maternal deaths are avoidable.

Maternal deaths occur because of three delays in the provision of effective care:

       1. A delay in the family realising that a woman is in difficulty and taking action

       2. A delay in transport to a health facility

       3. A delay in the provision of care on arrival at the health facility

To reduce maternal mortality, the solution must address all three delays concurrently, as each delay alone is able to lead to the death of the woman.
Distinguished Laureate Professor Roger Smith has led work in the development of interventions to address these delays including the successful use of singing to improve knowledge regarding antenatal care, as well as working with the Nepalese Government to fund and introduce a helicopter retrieval program for women with obstetric emergencies.