A mother believed to die every 2 hours during childbirth: MSF

KABUL (Pajhwok): International charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) says giving birth is a life-or-death struggle for women in Afghanistan, where roughly one mother is believed to die every two hours from preventable pregnancy and childbirth complications.

But the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) rejected the MSF claim, saying the mother-child mortality rates had decreased compared to previous years and 170 special clinics for mothers and children were being established to improve health services.

The MSF tweeted: “”Many women can’t access antenatal or postnatal care, and the health system struggles to treat patients who experience complications in pregnancy. Policymakers, donors, and local authorities must focus on strengthening primary medical services.”

However, MoPH spokesman Sharaf Zaman said the mother-child mortality rates had decreased compared to the previous years.

He said the Public Health Ministry had decided to set up 170 more clinics for mothers and children in order to improve health services for them.

He added: “Before the arrival of the Islamic Emirate, good things were not done for mothers and children, in every hundred thousand births, eleven hundred mothers would lose their lives during childbirths in the ast, but this is not the case now.”

He said the caretaker government had already created more than 200 clinics for mothers and children.

sa/ma

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