struck. Her family pulled her from the rubble of their home in Gerkhu village in Nuwakot district, around 30-km north of Kathmandu.
But they could not save her 14-year-old sister-in-law.
“The earthquake took my home, it left me with injuries and it killed my little sister-in-law,” Shrestha said, bursting into tears.
Only five out of 21 birthing centres were left standing in Shrestha’s district, while many villages were cut off.
“Everything is a challenge, from getting to the villages to equipping the birthing tents to ensuring support to our overstretched staff who are working 24/7 despite having suffered so much themselves,” the district’s public health nurse, Sanu Maiya Rana, told AFP.
Aid agencies like Unicef mobilised quickly to organise delivery of waterproof tents and essential supplies including antibiotics, gloves and surgical instruments.
But health workers still fear the disaster will wipe out years of hard work invested in improving access to healthcare.
Nepal has been credited with slashing its maternal mortality rate — by a staggering 55 percent between 2000 and 2013, from 430 deaths per 100,000 live births to 190 deaths. And the birthing centres are a lifeline for rural families across the country.
“It has taken us so long to make maternal health a priority and now, with the birthing centres gone... and the rains here, I am very worried,” Rana told AFP.
“If the rains damage the roads even further, then how will women come to see us and who will ensure that they get medical care?”
In Nuwakot, villagers are still living under tarpaulins and simple metal structures on hillsides four months after losing their homes in the disaster.
With just days to go before her due date, housewife Sita Pyakurel is fearful of delivering in the recently erected medical tents instead of a clinic.
“The tent feels too flimsy to offer protection against the wind and the rain... we already have water dripping from the roof of our shelter,” the 29-year-old mother of two said.
“Now frogs have started to show up at night, and if frogs are here, then snakes can’t be far behind.”
As the rain beat down on the tarpaulin roof of her temporary home, precariously erected on a ridge, Shrestha is worried for her family once again.
“I am afraid the rains will wash away our shelter... that illnesses will spread and make us sick,” she said.
But the successful birth of her son Jenish has given her reason to hope.
“Earlier I was scared... it was my first time giving birth so I didn’t know what to expect,” she said, holding him close.
“After he was born, I felt happy - I felt as though God was still with us, as though he had saved us.”