Kathmandu, Jan. 10 -- By the time health workers from Rayal Primary Health Care Centre in Bajhang arrived at the home in Kedarsyu Rural Municipality where a 21-year-old woman had given birth to her baby a few days ago, the newborn had already died. They found no vital signs in the mother, either.

"Early on Monday morning, we brought the mother to the health facility to save her, but she too died before reaching the facility," Mahendra Chand, a senior auxiliary health worker serving at the health centre, told the Post over the phone from Bajhang. "Due to the delay in bringing her to the health facility, both the mother and newborn died."

Health workers, as well as representatives of the rural municipality, told the Post that the village ...