Afghanistan Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) has informed of establishment of a maternity department within the ministry of public health to reduce the rate of maternal mortality in the country. Officials of the ministry have said that the newly established department to provide standard maternal health services to help reduce rate of maternal mortality in the country.
“Our only aim is to provide the mothers and their children with standard services to reduce rate of the maternal mortality in the country ,” said Qalandar Ebad, acting Minister of Public Health.
Meanwhile, a number of doctors and midwives consider the reason of increasing maternal and child mortality as lack of professional doctors and lack of women’s access to health centers in a number of the country’s provinces.
“The rate of maternal mortality is high in provinces due to lack of health centers and professional doctors,” said Maryam Stanekzai, a midwife.
She added that most women gave birth in homes, which added to rate of maternal mortality in the country.
According to information of the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2002, Afghanistan is still topped in maternal mortality rate among countries although the mortality rate has decreased by 60 percent comparing to a decade back.
In September, acting minister of public health had said that 584 mothers have lost their life while delivering their babies in the past one year, which is still a high number in the country.
The country’s ministry of public health has recently informed of reduction in rate of the maternal mortality in the country, saying that continued reduction of the rate of maternal morality shows improvement in the ministry’s standard services to the country’s mothers and children.
Officials for the ministry of public health are working to build capacities of the country’s medical sector as the country is facing with lack of professional medical cadres, nurses and midwives.
Currently, there are some problems in provinces where there are no specialist female doctors, and most health centers face a lack of specialist female doctors. The ministry of public health is working to build the existing number of doctors and medics’ capacities so that they can train other medics in the country’s provinces.
Saida Ahmadi
Maternity department established to cut down maternal mortality rate
