The UN estimates an Afghan woman dies every two hours during pregnancy and childbirth, making Afghanistan’s maternal mortality rate the highest in Asia
Aziza Rahimi, who lost her son at birth, walks inside her house in Foladi Valley in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, on March 2 2023. Picture REUTERS/ALI KHARA
The village’s rugged and remote beauty in Bamiyan’s Foladi Valley comes with deadly barriers for pregnant women. A narrow road to the village with few vehicles is sometimes cut off by snow, severing a lifeline to hospitals, clinics and trained health workers. A girl plays outside her house in Foladi Valley, Bamiyan, Afghanistan, on March 2 2023. Picture: REUTERS/ALI KHARAThe trainee midwife programme has been spearheaded by the UN refugee agency with the Watan Social and Technical Services Association, a local charity. They hope to expand the programme, which also takes place in neighbouring Daikundi province.
Rahimi, who has five other children, said riding a donkey was out of the question when she was jolted by pain while nine months’ pregnant in the middle of the night four months ago. Stumbling, bleeding, for two hours to her in-laws' house after her husband was unable to find a car or ambulance to take them to hospital, she gave birth there.
Any women with risks of complications are admitted to a maternity ward in a nearby building where another trainee midwife takes the blood pressure of a pregnant patient suffering from an infection. She checks regularly on a woman who gave birth six hours earlier, her baby daughter nestled by her side.
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