27 August 2019
News
A midwife performs an antenatal check up during a mobile health team visit in Nangarhar Province. © UNFPA Afghanistan
Mobile health teams bring life-saving care to fragile communities in Afghanistan
NANGARHAR, Afghanistan – Raihana Bibi is a 30-year-old mother of four children – one boy and three girls. Their family returned to Afghanistan from Pakistan and settled in Nangarhar Province about two years ago. They... Read more
24 July 2019
News
Women UN leaders meet with female leaders and advocates in Kabul, Afghanistan. Women's voices must be heard, they emphasized. © Fardin Waezi / UNAMA
Women belong at the centre of peace efforts, women UN leaders urge in Afghanistan
Kabul, Afghanistan/UNITED NATIONS, New York – UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem joined a high-level delegation of women UN leaders on an intensive two-day “solidarity mission” to Afghanistan to highlight the... Read more
22 May 2019
News
Farah* recently received surgical treatment for obstetric fistula. She says she can now "live a normal life." © UNFPA Afghanistan
Treatment for traumatic childbirth injury gives new hope to women in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan – “I saw myself as the living dead,” 50-year-old Laila* told UNFPA. She suffered terribly while giving birth in Pakistan 27 years ago. The prolonged, obstructed labour left her with an obstetric... Read more
3 May 2019
News
Najiba works in one of the hardest-to-reach, poorest areas of Bamyan. © UNFPA Afghanistan
No mountain too high: Midwives protect women, save lives
YAKAWLANG/SANGTAKHAT, Afghanistan – Midwives serve in some of the most remote health posts in the world, saving the lives of women and babies in settings that are often harsh and resource-poor. And their work can... Read more
10 July 2018
News
Family health houses are helping midwives provide reproductive health care in far-flung parts of Afghanistan. © UNFPA Afghanistan
Midwives deployed to remote Afghanistan to lower maternal death rate
HERAT, Afghanistan – By midnight, Khurshid, 35, was in serious trouble. Five months pregnant and bleeding heavily, she had passed out at home. Her family carried her unconscious body to the nearest – and only – health... Read more
2 August 2017
News
Expert midwife Tahira Nazari provides support to health workers at the Midwifery Helpline in Afghanistan. © UNFPA Afghanistan/Ahmadullah Amarkhil
Midwifery hotline offers emergency support in Afghanistan
SAYED KHEL, Afghanistan – “It was seven in the morning, and I had not yet started my working day, when Hafsa* was brought to the clinic with normal labour pains,” said Mahbooba, a 27-year-old midwife who runs the Aqtash... Read more
7 June 2016
News
Noorjahan laughs as she recovers from fistula surgery in Malalai Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan. Now, she says, "I can live." © Andrea Bruce/ NOOR
After childbirth trauma, Afghan women emerge from life in shadows
KABUL, Afghanistan – For 49 years, a traumatic childbirth injury left Noorjahan living in the shadows. A prolonged, obstructed labour, and lack of emergency maternal health care, left her with an obstetric fistula – a... Read more
16 May 2016
News
With a midwife’s help, quadruplets are safely delivered in remote Afghanistan
BALAKOH, Afghanistan – It was midnight in the remote Afghan village of Balakoh, and 37-year-old Zainab was entering her tenth hour of labour in her mountainside home. With no skilled birth attendant present and her pain... Read more
17 February 2016
News
Prosecuting gender-based violence in Afghanistan
BALKH, Afghanistan – It was after midnight and Bibi Gul* was in critical condition when her husband and eldest daughter brought her to a hospital in Balkh, a province in northern Afghanistan.  When the nurses examined... Read more
23 November 2015
News
Nargis, a midwife, provides family planning counselling in Herat, Afghanistan. © UNFPA Afghanistan/Ahmadullah Amarkhil
Acceptance of family planning grows in Afghanistan, but myths linger
HERAT, Afghanistan – "It is better to have one child rather than many, so you can give your child the support he needs and the best education you can offer," said Farzana, 37, at the family planning centre in Herat city... Read more

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