‘Dying every two hours’: Afghan women risk life to give birth
Al Jazeera
Afghanistan is among the worst countries in the world for deaths in childbirth, with one woman dying every two hours.
Zubaida travelled from the rural outskirts of Khost in eastern Afghanistan to give birth at a maternity hospital specialising in complicated cases, fearing a fate all too common among pregnant Afghan women – either her death or that of her child.
She lay dazed, surrounded by the unfamiliar bustle of the hospital run by international medical charity Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF. She was exhausted from the delivery the day before, but also relieved.
Her still-weak newborn slept nearby in an iron crib with peeling paint, the child’s eyes lined with kohl to ward off evil.
“If I had given birth at home, there could have been complications for the baby and for me,” said Zubaida, who doesn’t know her age.
Not all women who make it to the hospital are so lucky.
