New Shrine Foundation Midwife Program.  The plight of the Nepalese mother can be serious.  Their mortality rate is 541 per 10000 women, due mainly to the prevalence of home delivery (90% of all deliveries occur in the home), and the lack of skilled birth attendant.  The main cause of death is post partum hemorrhage. 

Furthermore, Nepal's under-5 mortality rate is 69 per 1000 live births.  The main causes of death for infants are intestinal diseases, acute respiratory infections (ARI), and measles.  

For these reasons, the New Shrine Foundation is establishing a Midwifery Program.  The midwife's responsibilities will be to conduct safe delivery and oversee post-partum recovery of mother and infant.
If sufficient funding is available, mid-wife volunteers will be selected and trained to handle delivery and post-partum treatment of respiratory and intestinal diseases.  The mid-wife volunteers will be allowed to charge small amounts of money while conducting the delivery and treating the young children; however, no patients will be turned away because of an inability to pay.