EN-SMILING A THRILLING PROGRAM

Shrijana Khadka, age 24, is a residence of Pokhara Sarangkot village. She has received education of tenth grade. She got married at the age of 21 with Dinesh Khadka. There are six members in her family.

Next month of her marriage, Shrijana got pregnant. But she had miscarriage at 7 months of pregnancy. Shrijana was quite shocked with this incident.

After six months of that miscarriage, she got pregnant again. She was terrified about the incident of her first pregnancy. So she took possible attention and care in her second pregnancy. She regularly visited hospital. Her delivery due date was June 3, 2018 but two months earlier on April 3, 2018 she felt severe abdominal pain. The pain did not stop for a long hour. Her husband had gone to Dubai for an employment.  She was taken to the Gandaki western regional hospital by her family members. Several important procedures including an ultrasonography was performed there.  It was identified that there were twin babies in her uterus.  Among them one was in correct position however the another was breech.  After her necessary health checkup, she was directly taken to the operation theater for Caesarian section, where she gave birth to twin babies.

Both babies were born with low birth weight, one baby weighing 1.7 kg, and another weighing 900 grams. They were taken to the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) soon after new born essential care. There, one of them was cared for 8 days and the another for 10 days.  Shrijana had to stay in hospital for 11 days.  After the babies were brought to the ward, nurse suggested Shrijana’s mother in law to rap the baby in her chest with skin to skin contact (Kangaroo mother care).  Family member did as per the suggestion.

Shrijana said ” Some of my relatives who came to see me at hospital and later at home, express bitter words like ‘ twin daughters, and like the mouse. How unlucky you are pity women!! These words were more painful to me rather than the small twin babies at a time in my lap.”

After Shrijana returned home along with the babies, she fed breast milk through the spoon in every 2 hours interval. Now both of the babies are well.

“One of the nurses at the hospital informed me that my babies were enrolled at EN- SMILING center run by Golden Community. And she explained me about the work that the center provides. She asked me to respond the phone call which comes from EN-SMILING center” Shrijana said.

Shrijana shared  “For the first time they called me when my babies were 15 days old and asked about their current status. Then after they called me regularly when babies were 45 days, 3 months, 4.5 months old. After my babies were 6 months old, they called me and asked to bring my babies in the center. I go there along with my babies whenever they call. I have heard that some time nurses come for home visit if the baby is found sick or any abnormalities observed.”

“These days I go to EN-SMILING center every trimester when they call me. In the EN-SMILING center, they do hemoglobin test, check the length and weight of the babies, check how the baby plays, using the tool which are helpful to know the growth and development as per their age.  They ask us what type of activities the baby does at home. They also take the baby to the doctor for check up . If the baby got any problem, they refer to the concerned place.” Shrijana explicated.

Shrijana further said “This center is much supportive to us. Sisters from this center call us time to time for the child assessment and health checkup. All checkup remains free and in a friendly way. If our child has any health problem, they tell us in the early stage. Early identification of the problem makes easy for the early solution.”

Shrijana’s babies are now 16 months old. Both the babies are healthy. She hopes a bright future of her children. She said “EN-SMILING is a thrilling program to all of us.”