A hospital-based study of abortion in Nepal

This report presents the major findings of a study of induced abortion in Nepal, based on 165 cases out of the 1,576 female patients identified as having abortion-related complications who were admitted to five major hospitals in urban Nepal during a one-year study period. Traditional birth attendants had been the service providers for two-fifths of the women. A longer delay in hospital referrals and lengthier hospital stays occurred for cases of induced abortion than for those of spontaneous abortion. Twelve of the 165 women in the study died in the hospital, most of them from tetanus. Deaths resulting from abortion-related complications represented more than half of all maternity-related deaths in the hospitals studied. The authors suggest that health risks could be reduced considerably by strengthening the hospital-referral system and by taking some preventive steps, such as educating the traditional birth attendants and other paramedical providers about the consequences of unsafe abortion practices; increasing the availability of contraceptive methods; and promoting the use of menstrual regulation, which has recently become available in Nepal on a limited scale, mostly in private clinics.