Although the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) in Nepal is still high (380 maternal deaths per 100,000 lives birth), the country has seen a 56% drop in MMR since 1990, according to last year’s United Nations Inter-Agency estimates. However, only 19% of births are attended by skilled professionals, a number among the lowest in the world, which drops to just 5% for the poorest quintile of Nepalese.
In “Witness – Birth in Nepal” a Nepalese filmmaker, Subina Shrestha “who is herself five months pregnant, sets out to find out why so many mothers are dying in childbirth.”