Kathmandu, Dec. 16 -- When the doctor told Rajita that he couldn't find her foetus' heartbeat during an ultrasound, she was heartbroken. It was her first pregnancy. At 12 weeks, she was told to take a pill that would result in a medical abortion and Rajita passed the pregnancy tissue at home. She hadn't told anyone about her pregnancy, apart from her husband and parents, and she didn't know anyone else who had had a miscarriage.

"For the longest time, I felt guilty and suffered in silence," said Rajita, who like other women interviewed for the story, requested to be identified by pseudonyms because they feared being stigmatised.

Rajita is not alone in fearing that her miscarriage will lead to social shaming and stigma, many times by fam...