Kathmandu, June 25 -- More Nepalis are delivering their babies at home due to the fear of getting infected with Covid-19 and unavailability of public transport due to the lockdown, officials said.

As the number of coronavirus cases surges across the country, expecting mothers are facing hurdles to visit their doctors regularly during pregnancy, and this has resulted in deaths of mothers as well as newborns, say doctors. While the number of women delivering babies in hospitals and clinics has gone down by 40 percent compared to the pre-lockdown days, at least 39 women and 291 babies have died due to birth complications in the last 80 days of the lockdown, according to the Safe Motherhood Unit under the Department of Health Services

"Due ...