Nepal flood shelters leave mothers, infants and pregnant women without support

Women displaced by Nepal's flash floods say shelters lack baby food, privacy and medical support. The gaps expose how generic relief systems overlook pregnancy, breastfeeding and infant care needs.

In Short

• Thousands of pregnant women across three districts need urgent targeted assistance
• Mothers in crowded classrooms lack baby food, privacy and timely meals
• Breastfeeding women report stress, smoke exposure and falling milk supply

Nearly two weeks after flash floods hit Nepal on August 26, mothers with infants and pregnant women in relief shelters are struggling with shortages of baby food, a lack of privacy and uncertainty over medical care. In crowded classrooms and temporary centres, many say they are being treated like any other displaced person even though they have specific needs during pregnancy, breastfeeding and early childcare.

Among them is 33-year-old Sharmila Shrestha, whose home was swept away and who was separated from her 14-month-old daughter for two or three days before finding her again after a six-hour walk through the hills. Now reunited at a shelter in northwest Kathmandu, she sleeps on the floor of a classroom with her daughter and her sister-in-law's 18-month-old son, with no baby food for either child. The United Nations Population Fund estimates that around 4,430 pregnant women are living across 15 municipalities in the flood-hit districts of Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading.

"They aren't giving any special food for babies. We are forced to feed that same heavy adult food to the small child," Shrestha told The Kathmandu Post on Sunday. "I only want a decent, proper place to stay. That would bring some peace of mind," she said.

For mothers like Shrestha, the disaster has become a crisis within a crisis, playing out in feeding lines, packed shelters and on difficult routes to hospitals. Babies are going hungry, mothers are finding it hard to breastfeed, and pregnant women are worried about reaching a hospital if complications arise. In shelters housing hundreds of displaced people, even a quiet and private place to feed and comfort a child is hard to find.

At Trishuli, Pariyar, who is three months into breastfeeding her newborn, fled her home on August 26 as floodwaters rose. She is now nursing her baby in a shelter along the Bhotekoshi-Trishuli corridor that she shares with dozens of strangers, with men smoking nearby and the smell of alcohol in the air. "We are all in the same place, so it is difficult. There is cigarette smoke, the smell of alcohol, and the baby cannot sleep," said Pariyar, who uses only her last name.

The Kathmandu Post reported that her breast milk supply has fallen since the floods. She tried formula, but it appeared to upset the baby's stomach and left the infant crying even more after feeding. "If there was a safe place, and the baby could get her vaccinations here, that would be better. We are not getting food on time either. We are not getting enough to eat," Pariyar said. Her request, the report said, was simple: a separate space.

Across the three affected districts, thousands of women are facing similar risks. The UNFPA said its figure of 4,430 pregnant women was a humanitarian planning estimate based on an affected population of about 310,000, not a headcount of individually identified women. Based on that estimate, around 492 births could be expected in the following month, with roughly 74 women potentially needing emergency obstetric care. For many, the immediate question is whether they will be able to reach help in time.

At Trishuli Hospital, the district-level hospital serving the area, nine deliveries have been carried out since the floods. Pregnant women are also arriving with fever, reduced foetal movement and urinary tract infections. "Because of the floods, our service delivery has become very difficult," said Basanti Pancha, who heads the maternity department. Electricity remains unreliable, forcing staff to run a generator for surgeries and sterilise instruments by hand in small batches. "Previously, Kathmandu was just a two-hour road trip away. Now, by road, nobody knows how many hours it will take because of the landslides," Pancha said. The hospital also does not have an advanced neonatal unit for babies who may suddenly need intensive care. "Pregnancy itself brings a lot of natural anxiety, stress and doubt about what will happen. But the floods have added a layer of extra stress on these women," she said.

At Chandrawati Secondary School in central Nepal, more than 1,000 displaced people are staying in a holding centre, including over 500 women. "Everyone is in the same place," said Rekha Shrestha, executive director of women's rights organisation WOREC. She said there were not enough sanitary pads for menstruating adolescents, and in one distribution women were given a single pad and told it should last three or four days. "Pregnant women and postpartum mothers have special needs. There is no private space to bathe, to dry clothes, to breastfeed. That privacy is not an extra service in a disaster response. It's a necessity," Rekha said, adding that her organisation had begun creating female-friendly spaces.

Aid workers said evacuated women were being folded into a relief system built around a generic idea of what a displaced person needs, with little room for the needs of breastfeeding or postpartum mothers, their privacy, or an infant's need for anything softer than dal bhat. As the flood response continues, many women remain in shelters without the food, space and medical support they say they urgently need. "This is very difficult for us," Pariyar said.

With PTI Inputs

- Ends