Almost half of all deaths of women age 15-49 in Afghanistan result from complications during pregnancy and childbirth. Most of these deaths could be prevented with increased access to maternal health services. Your gift will provide training for midwives, prenatal and ongoing medical care for mothers and children, improved nutrition, immunizations, and other critical interventions for those in need.
More than half of Afghanistan’s 30 million people live in abject poverty. Harmful cultural practices such as early marriage, along with taboos against male physicians attending to women, have exacerbated the country’s maternal and infant mortality rates—among the very highest in the world. One in six babies dies before its first birthday, and six of every 100 mothers dies in childbirth. Afghanistan also has one of the world's highest highest child mortality rates.
The project will improve both quality and access to essential maternal/newborn services, including training community health workers and midwives in safe, community-based birthing and newborn care. World Vision’s midwife training program prepares women to provide prenatal, delivery and postnatal care to pregnant women in their villages and towns. Students also learn to feed and care for premature infants in the hospital's neonatal unit, also funded by World Vision.
World Vision’s Maternal Health in Afghanistan program aims to improve maternal, newborn, and child health outcomes for approximately 300,000 women and children.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
