Afghanistan: Maternal health factors improve but high death rate continues according to UN
“The reality is that for every 100,000 births, 1,600 women die,” WHO Representative Peter Graaf said, adding: “Given the large average number of pregnancies for Afghan women over their lifetimes, this figure translates into a one in eight chance for any Afghan woman to die of pregnancy-related complications.”
Mr. Graaf said that in order to save mothers’ lives, the UN agencies are working with the Ministry of Public Heath and other local and international partners to increase access to skilled birth attendants, which have increased in the country from 467 to 2,167 since 2002. However, 4,500 skilled midwives were needed in order to cover 90 per cent of the country’s needs, he said.
In addition, UNFPA Representative Prasanna Gunasekera stressed that saving the lives of mothers and newborns required more than just medical intervention. “It also requires an environment that empowers women and respects their rights,” she said.
Education, in particular, was important for other health factors, being the most powerful way to break the cycle of poverty, boost knowledge of nutrition and care and postpone marital pregnancy to a healthier age level, she added. Girls who give birth before age 15 are five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their 20s, and a child born to a girl under 18 has a 60 per cent greater chance of dying in the first year of life than one born to a 19 year-old, she said.
26 January 2009
Source: UN News Centre
Related News
- The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, requests judicial authorisation to commence an investigation into the Situation in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
- Indonesia: PRESS RELEASE: Women Leaders National Jamboree--230 Women Leaders Building the New Indonesian Economy and Peace
- Taliban Stone Woman To Death For Eloping
- Farkhunda murder: Afghan court quashes death sentences
- With Her Father On Death Row, Afghan Mother Attempts To Put Decade Of Incest, Abuse Behind Her
Related Actions
- WLUML Letter to the Canadian Govt.: Support of Afghan Women's Demands
- Women Living Under Muslim Laws condemns the cowardly attack on Fawzia Koofi
- Statement in Condemnation of Terrorist Attack Targeting Media Organizations in Afghanistan
- On May 28, International Day of Action for Women’s Health, Women’s Rights Defenders Mobilize Worldwide Calling for the Inclusion of Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in the Post-2015 Development Agenda
- SIGN THE PETITION: President Hamid Karzai: We call on you not to sign the new Law on Criminal Procedures
Relevant Resources
- Forced Gynecological Exams As Sexual Harassment and Human Rights Violation
- Afghanistan: Their lives on the line: Women human rights defenders under attack in Afghanistan
- Influences of Religious Fundamentalism on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Women
- Reclaiming and Redefining Rights: ICPD+20: Status of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in the Middle East and North Africa
- RIWPS Annual Brochure 2013