Sarada's first baby was born when she was 18. Like many women in this region, Sarada developed a prolapse of the uterus* immediately after her first delivery. She suffered with the condition for eight years until one of Merlin's mobile health teams treated her recently.
This is her story.
"It was very painful and uncomfortable, I couldn’t sit, could not rest properly, walking was tiring. My back was always aching and I had strong pelvic pains."
Sarada was not able to access or afford health care, nor could her family spend the time or money needed to travel and pay for the surgery.
"It is an expensive surgery. On top of that, it takes about three days to walk from here to reach the closest hospital, and then you need about 10 days to complete the surgical procedures. Many women just don’t have enough money, and cannot leave their households and their work for such a long time. My husband would have taken care of our children, but we just could not afford it."
So in this state Sarada gave birth to four more children, each delivery more excruciating than the last and each further exacerbating her already serious condition.
Sarada lived in this way, looking after her children and working for her family, for eight long years until recently, when she heard about Merlin and the service offered to women suffering from this condition.
"A female community volunteer, trained through the health education sessions at Merlin’s medical camps, told me I could get the surgery I needed for free. She told me that Merlin also pays for the transportation costs for me and a relative to the hospital in Nepalgunj, which is the best equipped and the safest for this kind of procedure. With my husband, I decided to ask Merlin for help."
When the Merlin doctor visited Sarada in her village, he found her condition to be extremely serious. She was immediately referred to Nepalgunj hospital where the major surgery was successful.
Today Sarada can finally sit down and move without discomfort. She says her pains have all gone, that work and carrying her babies is easy now.
“I can have a normal life, a better life.” She is able to smile again.
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* Uterine prolapse is a downward displacement of the uterus from its normal location inside the pelvis, commonly caused by pregnancy and childbirth. It is a condition all too commonly suffered by women in Nepal’s mountainous regions, where the lack of access to skilled birth attendants and facilities, combined with the normal practice of returning to long and tiring work immediately after delivery, leave women highly vulnerable to the painful condition. In 2009 Merlin visited more than 500 women suffering from uterine prolapse in Pyuthan and Rolpa districts and referred more than 300 for surgery.