Maternity Oasis, 50 Bedded

Abstract

This thesis investigates the development of a maternal wellness center that utilizes the amalgamation of health care, emotional healing, and community to provide holistic care to women pregnant or postpartum. Characteristically, maternity services in Nepal typically only include clinical interventions. While pregnancy is an exciting time for many families, there is a lack of spaces for mothers that engage all of their physical, emotional, psychological, etc. needs � especially working women. Many women struggle to obtain rest, emotional support, and social engagement during this vulnerable period. More humane, all-encompassing, and engaging environments are warranted for maternity care. Maternity Oasis, the name of the proposed project, offers an interdisciplinary architectural response to conventional maternal care by developing a spectrum of help through alternatives to the "found" environments of maternal care. In doing so, a nurturing, restorative atmosphere both physically, emotionally, and socially can be made for women to engage, heal, and build community. The center includes coordinated spaces such as birthing suits and postnatal suites, healing gardens and wellness therapy spaces, and communal spaces. As a whole, the project emphasizes an intuitively organized spatial experience, sensitivity to the environment, a calming material palette, and consideration of material forms that build comfort and dignity. By avoiding typical clinical and sterile models of architectural responses to healthcare, Maternity Oasis offers tranquillity and a welcoming atmosphere aligned with the needs of contemporary mothers. The program emphasizes flexibility, accessibility, and emotional support systems for mothers to heal and reconnect with themselves and others. Lastly, extensive research, user surveys, and analysis of existing gaps in maternity services in Nepal provide a foundation for a new lens through which to envision architecture as an agent for women's healing, care, and community Keywords: Maternal wellness, postpartum care, healing architecture, biophilic design, community-centered design, maternity care in Nepal.