646 Afghan mothers die in childbirth last year: MoPH

KABUL (MoPH) said on Saturday, calling the figures worrisome.

Naveed Shams, head of HMAS Department at the ministry, during an exclusive interview told Pajhwok Afghan News the figures of mother and child mortality had been obtained from hospitals and mobile clinics.

He said from January to September last year, 227 mothers lost their lives at different hospitals while another 419 mothers lost their lives at mobile clinics during childbirth.

“The number of mother and child mortality may be higher because the figures we have are only obtained from hospitals and mobile clinics,” he said.

He said currently 84 among every 100,000 mothers lost their lives while 19 infants in every 1,000 died from causes related to childbirth.

“The Public Health Ministry has not been able to establish health centers in every part of the country due to insecurity, therefore knowing the exact number of mother and child deaths is not available”, he said.

According to Shams, most of health centers use to avoid registration of mother and child deaths in order to skip the blame.

Pregnancy Department Head Zulaikha Anwari said the ministry has not conducted any survey to identify figures regarding child and mother mortality.

She said according to 2018 survey, 850 mothers out of every 100,000 lost their lives during child delivery while 55 children out of 1,000 died during their birth.

“In the past in every 100,000 mothers, 1,600 would die during child delivery and currently the number has declined to 850 and there is possibility that this figure further decline,” said Anwari.

She said currently 60 percent of pregnant women have access to health facilities and the remaining 40 percent were deprived of such facilities.

Anwari said mother-mortality rate was high in Nuristan, Uruzgan, Daikundi, Ghor, Badghis and some other provinces.

In order to decrease the mother-child mortality, the Public Health Ministry launched public awareness programs, printed books and paintings, prepared calcium tablets, increased the number of health officials and took others step, she said.

Anwari said the books had been distributed in Kabul, Nangarhar and Bamyan provinces and would be distributed in other provinces this year.

Nh/ma