Saving Mothers and Babies in Afghanistan

There is a common thread in the stories recently. At least three different women (Sediqa, Amina, and Zainab) told similar stories. Each story was told about a mother with excessive bleeding after birth.

• One piece of advice from a grandmother was “if you are bleeding, you should walk an hour until it stops”. Zainab fell over and died.
• Amina’s mother had just delivered her sixth baby and was bleeding heavily. She wanted to go to the hospital, but the father said it would be shameful. Eventually, they went to the hospital, but Amina’s mother died in route to the hospital

Fatima told the story of the two children she lost. One baby during the first year was vomiting and had so much diarrhea. She stopped breastfeeding thinking this would help with the diarrhea. Two days later, the baby died.

 Each of these stories ended with a phrase like: “If we would have had this class earlier this life would have been saved.”

We have seen great success is basic education for both men and women as their look for early and late signs for trauma for a delievery. Many deaths can be avoided by preparation and training.