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News/Event Item
Maternal Mortality in Northeastern Afghanistan Among Worst in World
February 16 2007
Sangima watched her sister-in-law Mastbegeen die trying to give birth to her seventh child. The baby was born prematurely and there was excessive bleeding during labour. There were no doctors or trained midwives near her village in the northeastern Afghan province of Badakshan to help so her family had to watch her life ebb away; the child did not survive either.
Such is the reality in many remote villages of the Wakhan corridor in Badakshan, where there is little or no access to healthcare. In this rugged area in the Pamir Mountains it takes between four and six days on horse-back or by yak to reach the nearest medical facility, provided bad weather has not blocked the roads.
Abdul Haq, a resident of Big Pamir village, also endured his 29-year-old wife dying during delivery. "We don't have clinics, schools or [government] offices here. Who do we go to with our problems?" he asked.
Copyright © IRIN 2007
For the full article, visit:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70221
category: News from Other Sources : General Health News
contributed by Winnie Mutch on 19 February 2007
Mid East :
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