Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on safe abortion and family planning services at a tertiary care women’s hospital in Nepal

Background: The COVID-19pandemic emerged as a major public health crisis, which has affected all dimensions of the health care system. Sexual and reproductive health services were severely affected, leading to a decrease in access and service utilization, affecting the overall health of women.Methods: A two-year comparative study, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, on safe abortion services and family planning, was conducted at Paropakar maternity and women's hospital to assess the impact of COVID-19 on service utilization.Results: Safe abortion services were decreased by 34.4%, and family planning services by 39%, in 2020 as compared to the previous year. Uptake of long-acting reversible contraceptives and permanent methods was most affected. Utilization of services was affected markedly during lockdown, and showed a persistent decline, even after the lockdown was lifted.Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic has seriously affected safe abortion and family planning services in Nepal due to lockdown, travel restriction, home isolation, resource reallocation, health facilities serving only emergencies and confusing messages about COVID-19 control. The decline in these services will create additional demand and pressure on the health care system, resulting from unplanned pregnancies and unsafe abortions. Health care staffs should be reoriented about the essential nature of safe abortion and family planning services during emergencies, and the implications of service disruption, on society and the country. Pragmatic and gender sensitive changes to national policies should be made, to ensure that women's health is safeguarded, and safe abortion and family planning included as essential health care services during emergencies.

Giant Ovarian Mucinous Cystadenoma Complicating Term Pregnancy

  Huge ovarian cyst are found in less than 1% of all ovarian cyst in pregnancy and are associated with poor feto-maternal outcome. A 28 years old G2P1 with history of normal vaginal delivery 3 years back was referred from local health post with complains of intermittent pain abdomen at 29 weeks. Her scan showed huge ovarian cyst of 18.9×17.6 cm with multiple thick septation. Woman was conservatively managed till term and elective surgery was planned however she presented in labour with breech presentation at 39 weeks and 4days. Emergency lower segment caesarian section along with left sided salpingo–oophorectomy was done along with delivery of 2.5 kg healthy female baby. Histopathology was suggestive of mucinous cystadenoma of ovary. Although antepartum removal of ovarian cyst has been recommended to ensure good pregnancy outcome, expectant management and timed intervention can be adopted for pregnancy with huge ovarian cysts

Abstracts of National Conference on Research and Developments in Material Processing, Modelling and Characterization 2020

This book presents the abstracts of the papers presented to the Online National Conference on Research and Developments in Material Processing, Modelling and Characterization 2020 (RDMPMC-2020) held on 26th and 27th August 2020 organized by the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Science in Association with the Department of Production and Industrial Engineering, National Institute of Technology Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, India. Conference Title: National Conference on Research and Developments in Material Processing, Modelling and Characterization 2020Conference Acronym: RDMPMC-2020Conference Date: 26–27 August 2020Conference Location: Online (Virtual Mode)Conference Organizer: Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, National Institute of Technology JamshedpurCo-organizer: Department of Production and Industrial Engineering, National Institute of Technology Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, IndiaConference Sponsor: TEQIP-