{"id":37274,"date":"2025-12-30T14:58:54","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T11:28:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rukhshana.com\/en\/?p=37274"},"modified":"2025-12-30T16:15:54","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T12:45:54","slug":"afghanistans-maternal-health-services-are-collapsing-heres-how-one-rural-province-is-being-affected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rukhshana.com\/en\/afghanistans-maternal-health-services-are-collapsing-heres-how-one-rural-province-is-being-affected\/","title":{"rendered":"Afghanistan\u2019s maternal health services are collapsing. Here\u2019s how one rural province is being affected"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Ziba Balkhi<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When Medina\u2019s sister went into labour in November, her family took her to the main provincial hospital in Sar-e Pol. There, they were told she needed a caesarean section, but that no specialist was available to carry one out. Their only option was to drive her for 90 minutes to a private hospital in a neighbouring province, but by the time they got there, it was too late &#8212; the baby was dead. Doctors said that if they had got there any later, the mother could also have died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe doctors operated quickly, and my sister survived, but sadly her baby died,\u201d Medina, who asked not to be identified by her real name, told Rukhshana Media in Sar-e Pol, which lies about 600 kilometres (400 miles) north of the Afghan capital Kabul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s an all too familiar story in a country where giving birth has never been as safe as it should be \u2013 especially in mountainous rural areas like Sar-e Pol, where many women still have their babies at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, it\u2019s getting worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Taliban <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/3287994\">restrictions on women\u2019s employment, education and mobility<\/a>, combined with shrinking health budgets resulting from the withdrawal of international aid, have exacerbated existing problems in a country battered by decades of war and instability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hundreds of health facilities have been forced to close since the US <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/ckgqdneev1no\">closed aid programmes<\/a> in Afghanistan earlier this year, removing the only option for many women to give birth safely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even in hospitals that still operate, there\u2019s a chronic shortage of trained health workers. One source at the Sar-e Pol provincial hospital told Rukhshana Media that an average of four mothers and eight children die every month due to the lack of health services and specialist doctors there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cUnfortunately, at Sar-e Pol Hospital, there is only one specialist obstetrician\u2013gynaecologist, and even that doctor works only from 8 til 12,\u201d said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. \u201cAfter that, if any emergency patient arrives, there is no doctor to attend to them\u2026 the situation in the maternity ward here is extremely critical.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One local resident described how she recently suffered a miscarriage and went to the hospital but was turned away and had to travel to a neighbouring province to be seen. \u201cIt\u2019s called a hospital, but they provide no services to people, especially to women,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Afghanistan has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/UN_Women\/status\/1964569410825236762?s=20\">UN Women<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/knowledge.unwomen.org\/sites\/default\/files\/2025-08\/afghanistan-gender-alert-2025-08-en.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com\"> <\/a>said in September that the risk was increasing, citing the high rate of adolescent pregnancies due to child marriage as one factor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This situation is particularly challenging in remote parts of the country, though no reliable data is available as the Taliban does not publish it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One source working in Sar-e Pol\u2019s health sector said authorities were trying to cover up the maternal death figures. \u201cEven in morning reporting meetings, they say nothing about how many babies or mothers have died, because it would damage the hospital\u2019s reputation,\u201d said the source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In more remote districts of the province, women still usually give birth at home. Rukhshana Media spoke to people in Kuhistanat district who said it could take between three and five hours to reach the provincial capital. In many high-risk cases, or for those requiring caesarean sections, the baby or the mother dies before reaching the hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHere, most births take place at home because there are no hospitals and no proper clinic,\u201d said one resident. \u201cThe clinic is on top of a hill, and we have to use animals to transport people there. That\u2019s why most women here give birth at home. From here to the centre of Sar-e Pol it is about four hours.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One local man said his brother\u2019s wife had died on the way to the provincial centre in October due to severe blood loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHer condition was bad. She lost consciousness and had severe bleeding,\u201d he said. \u201cThe village clinics can\u2019t cope with cases like that, where the condition is critical, so they took her to the centre of Sar-e Pol. But on the way, both the baby and my brother\u2019s wife died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There\u2019s a similar situation in many other districts of the province. Residents of Balkhab district said it was often just not possible to bring women in labour to the hospital, meaning they give birth at home, often with no formal medical help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One Balkhab resident said the cost of transport was a significant barrier to going to hospital. Often, he said, all you could do was pray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cClinics can handle a normal delivery, but if the condition of the baby or mother is critical, they advise taking them to the hospital,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the road is in poor condition and it\u2019s a difficult and slow journey. As transport costs are extremely high, we cannot afford to take our women to the centre during childbirth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMy own child\u2014it was my fourth\u2014died during birth. My uncle\u2019s daughter-in-law died in the same way during the birth of her first child, though the baby survived. No official in our district pays the needed attention.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Increasingly, even if they do make it to the hospital in the district headquarters, women aren\u2019t getting the care they need. Medical staff at the hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity, described serious lapses due to the lack of specialist staff. One described the death of a young woman who came to the hospital in labour with her first child. When it became clear that she needed an emergency caesarean section, there was no trained surgeon available, so the midwifes performed the procedure. The child died, and the hospital ended up having to remove the woman\u2019s uterus to save her life, leaving her unable to conceive again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Sar-e Pol, where tradition dictates that a woman\u2019s value lies in her ability to bear children, that meant her life was ruined, said the health worker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cShe will face ridicule from her husband and in-laws for the rest of her life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ziba Balkhi When Medina\u2019s sister went into labour in November, her family took her to the main provincial hospital in Sar-e Pol. There, they were told she needed a caesarean section, but that no specialist was available to carry one out. Their only option was to drive her for 90 minutes to a private hospital [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"no-sidebar-narrow","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"bottom","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9581,902],"tags":[999,11489,11490],"class_list":["post-37274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-our-work-en","category-reports-en","tag-afghanistan","tag-maternal-health","tag-rural-province"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Afghanistan\u2019s maternal health services are collapsing. 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