Kabul
Afghanistan is one of the world’s most dangerous places to give birth, Save the Children said this week. One in six Afghan mothers dies during or shortly after childbirth, a loss of 20,000 women a year. “It’s really as bad as it can get and still sustain a population,” Linda Bartlett of UNICEF told The Washington Post. Health workers blame the high maternal mortality rate on the lack of medical assistance. Most families don’t want a male doctor to treat women, and female doctors or midwives are scarce. In rural areas, the nearest hospital is often several days’ travel away, while in urban areas, the hospitals are so crowded that women are discharged on the same day they give birth.
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