For thousands of mothers in Brahmanbaria, childbirth has come with a familiar source of reassurance: two dedicated healthcare workers who have spent years assisting women through normal deliveries at community-level health centres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Together, Family Welfare Inspectors Nazma Akter and Shirina Chowdhury have assisted in more than 10,500 normal births over the course of their careers. Their work at the Dariadaulat Union Health and Family Welfare Centre in Bancharampur and the Paharpur Union Health and Family Welfare Centre in Bijoynagar has earned them the trust of women from their own communities as well as from neighbouring areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nazma Akter has assisted with nearly 3,000 normal deliveries over the past 12 years, while Shirina Chowdhury has overseen more than 7,500 over a career spanning 34 years. Officials from the family planning offices of the two upazilas confirmed the figures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their contribution has been built on years of experience, professional training and, perhaps most importantly, the confidence of women and their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nazma, a resident of Fatehpur village in Saifullahkandi Union of Bancharampur, joined the government service on December 10, 2014. Her work gained wider recognition after she completed six months of midwifery training at Chattogram Medical College Hospital in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since then, women from outside Bancharampur have increasingly sought her assistance. Expectant mothers now arrive from neighbouring Nabinagar, as well as from parts of Narsingdi and Homna in Cumilla.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Records from the Bancharampur Upazila Family Planning Office and the Dariadaulat health centre show that the number of normal deliveries under Nazma’s supervision has been particularly high during the past five and a half years. From January 2021 through July 2026, she assisted in 2,441 normal births. During the first seven months of 2026 alone, she helped 280 mothers deliver their babies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her work has also earned repeated recognition. Since 2022, Nazma has been named the best Family Welfare Inspector at the upazila level for normal deliveries. She was also selected as the best in the district in 2024, 2025 and again in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The scale of her workload can be seen at the health centre itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During a visit on June 16, patients were waiting outside Nazma’s room while an expectant mother experiencing labour pain waited in an adjoining room. Over a period of approximately 17 hours beginning the previous afternoon, Nazma assisted with five normal deliveries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her busiest day saw six deliveries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She has also assisted in the birth of 15 sets of twins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Nazma, however, the numbers tell only part of the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSometimes I become extremely tired after working continuously,\u201d she said. \u201cBut once a healthy newborn comes into the world, that tiredness disappears. At present, I assist with around 40 to 45 normal deliveries every month.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She recalled that the situation was very different when she first began working at the centre. Deliveries were fewer, and the community’s confidence in the facility had not yet developed. According to her, the midwifery training she completed in 2019 strengthened her professional skills and helped build greater trust among local families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That trust has gradually transformed the health centre into a preferred destination for many expectant mothers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On June 16, Ansar Ali of Dariadaulat village brought his pregnant daughter-in-law to the centre. He told reporters that another of his grandchildren had also been born there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to him, Nazma’s reputation now extends well beyond the union. Families across the upazila and surrounding areas have heard about her services, while her manner of dealing with patients has also contributed to the confidence women place in her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In neighbouring Bijoynagar, Shirina Chowdhury’s record stretches back even further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She joined the Paharpur Union Health and Family Welfare Centre as a Family Welfare Inspector in June 1992. According to the centre’s records, she assisted with approximately eight to nine deliveries each month between 1992 and 2009.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The number increased significantly over the following years. From 2010 to 2018, she assisted with roughly 25 to 30 deliveries each month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Based on these records, 7,573 normal deliveries have taken place under her supervision over 34 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her monthly record has also been remarkable. In January 2024 alone, she assisted with 47 deliveries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Official online records have been maintained by the Directorate General of Family Planning since 2019. Between January 2019 and July 2026, the 10 health and family welfare centres in Bijoynagar recorded a total of 5,552 normal deliveries. Shirina alone assisted with 2,439 of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At present, normal deliveries are being conducted at four of the centres, including Paharpur, while services have stopped at the remaining six.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shirina’s journey began at a time when childbirth services looked very different from today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn the beginning, we had to go from house to house to conduct deliveries,\u201d she said. \u201cGradually, we worked to raise awareness and encourage people to come to health centres. As news of successful deliveries spread, the confidence of pregnant women increased.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Women now travel considerable distances to seek her assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her years of service have included countless nights without sleep, but she says the safe arrival of a newborn makes the exhaustion worthwhile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere have been countless sleepless nights,\u201d she said. \u201cBut when a healthy baby is safely delivered and sees the light of the world, I feel the same happiness as everyone else. The fatigue simply disappears.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her contribution to maternal healthcare has also been formally recognized. Since 2010, Shirina has repeatedly been named the best Family Welfare Inspector at the upazila level, while the Paharpur health centre has also maintained recognition as the best-performing centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2015, she was selected as the best Family Welfare Inspector in the district. In 2018, she received the Joyeeta award at the upazila level for her contribution and achievements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Officials say the achievements of the two healthcare workers demonstrate what community-based maternal healthcare can accomplish when professional skills are combined with public trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, Deputy Director of the District Family Planning Office, described Nazma and Shirina as examples for normal childbirth services across the district, praising their continued efforts to provide care to mothers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their work also reflects the importance of strengthening access to skilled maternal care close to where women live. When families trust local health facilities and healthcare workers, women may be more likely to seek professional assistance during childbirth rather than relying exclusively on home-based arrangements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the same time, both Nazma and Shirina emphasize that normal delivery is not appropriate for every pregnancy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If they believe a mother’s condition is becoming complicated or requires a higher level of medical intervention, they advise transferring her promptly to an upazila health complex or another hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They have also recommended keeping ambulances ready outside the two union-level facilities so that women can be transferred quickly when complications arise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The message from specialists is equally clear: promoting normal childbirth should go hand in hand with access to emergency care when medically necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. Rowshan Ara Begum, former president of the Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society of Bangladesh, praised the two healthcare workers for their contribution and expressed hope that the country’s efforts to promote normal delivery would continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The achievements of Nazma Akter and Shirina Chowdhury illustrate how sustained commitment at the grassroots level can transform maternal healthcare. Their work is measured not only in thousands of deliveries, but in the confidence of mothers who arrive knowing that someone experienced will be beside them when labour begins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For more than three decades, Shirina has remained at the Paharpur centre. Nazma’s career has been shorter, but her growing reputation demonstrates how professional training can strengthen community confidence in maternal services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Together, their stories offer a powerful reminder that healthcare does not always begin in a large hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes, it begins in a small community health centre, where a skilled and trusted healthcare worker answers a late-night call, stays beside a woman through hours of labour and helps welcome a new life into the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the thousands of mothers who have placed their trust in Nazma and Shirina, those moments have become more than statistics. They represent safe deliveries, healthy newborns and the reassurance that, when the most important moment arrives, they do not have to face it alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A news by Alisha Pradhan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For thousands of mothers in Brahmanbaria, childbirth has come with a familiar source of reassurance: two dedicated healthcare workers who have spent years assisting women through normal deliveries at community-level health centres. Together, Family Welfare Inspectors Nazma Akter and Shirina Chowdhury have assisted in more than 10,500 normal births over the course of their careers. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7483,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-5"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7479"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7486,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7479\/revisions\/7486"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}