Disabled women's attendance at community women's groups in rural Nepal.

There is strong evidence that participatory approaches to health and participatory women's groups hold great potential to improve the health of women and children in resource poor settings. It is important to consider if interventions are reaching the most marginalized, and therefore we examined disabled women's participation in women's groups and other community groups in rural Nepal. People with disabilities constitute 15% of the world's population and face high levels of poverty, stigma, social marginalization and unequal access to health resources, and therefore their access to women's groups is particularly important. We used a mixed methods approach to describe attendance in groups among disabled and non-disabled women, considering different types and severities of disability. We found no significant differences in the percentage of women that had ever attended at least one of our women's groups, between non-disabled and disabled women. This was true for women with all severities and types of disability, except physically disabled women who were slightly less likely to have attended. Barriers such as poverty, lack of family support, lack of self-confidence and attendance in many groups prevented women from attending groups. Our findings are particularly significant because disabled people's participation in broader community groups, not focused on disability, has been little studied. We conclude that women's groups are an important way to reach disabled women in resource poor communities. We recommend that disabled persons organizations help to increase awareness of disability issues among organizations running community groups to further increase their effectiveness in reaching disabled women.

Understanding how women's groups improve maternal and newborn health in Makwanpur, Nepal: a qualitative study.

Women's groups, working through participatory learning and action, can improve maternal and newborn survival. We describe how they stimulated change in rural Nepal and the factors influencing their effectiveness. We collected data from 19 women's group members, 2 group facilitators, 16 health volunteers, 2 community leaders, 21 local men, and 23 women not attending the women's groups, through semi-structured interviews, group interviews, focus group discussions and unstructured observation of groups. Participants took photographs of their locality for discussion in focus groups using photoelicitation methods. Framework analysis procedures were used, and data fed back to respondents. When group members were compared with 11 184 women who had recently delivered, we found that they were of similar socioeconomic status, despite the context of poverty, and caste inequalities. Four mechanisms explain the women's group impact on health outcomes: the groups learned about health, developed confidence, disseminated information in their communities, and built community capacity to take action. Women's groups enable the development of a broader understanding of health problems, and build community capacity to bring health and development benefit.

Role of foley's catheter in removing foreign body of oesophagus.

Oesophageal foreign bodies are commonly removed with rigid oesophagoscopy under general anaesthesia, but spherical foreign bodies can also be removed using a foley's catheter under fluoroscopic control without anaesthesia. We present a case of successful removal of a spherical marble from the oesophagus in a four years old girl by a foley's catheter under general anaesthesia.

Vesicovaginal fistula at tertiary care center in eastern Nepal.

Vesicovaginal fistula is physically, socially and psychologically devastating to the women who suffer from it. The aim of this study is to create some awareness about VVF, to describe the profile of the patients, etiology, and success rate of surgery in our institute. A retrospective analysis of a total of 23 cases of vesicovaginal fistula admitted to the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, BPKIHS over a period of three years were included in the study. The cause of VVF in all was obstructed labor except in one, which followed abdominal hysterectomy. Twenty-three subjects underwent VVF repair, of which 14 (56.5%) had successful outcome.

Metallic vaginal ring pessary: a rare entity.

Vaginal pessaries still have role in the management of uterovaginal prolapse especially in elderly women, unfit for surgery and as a temporary relief for women waiting for surgery. Forgotten vaginal pessaries may cause serious complications. We here by present a case wtih metallic vaginal ring pessary for 16 years without significant symptoms.