Saving the lives of mothers and newborns in Afghanistan

• Every year 86,500 babies die in Afghanistan
• Every year 17,000 mothers die from pregnancy and childbirth complications and 81 percent deliver at home without access to a health facility or skilled birth attendant.
• Many of these lives can be saved through low cost solutions
• Afghanistan is making some progress but more needs to be done to save lives.
Save the Children, in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) and other partners, is working on a strategy to assess gaps and address major child and maternal health concerns.
The specific objectives of this analysis are to provide an overview of the following:
– the state of maternal health in Afghanistan, focusing on factors that effect women’s health before and during pregnancy; maternal mortality and its causes; intrapartum and postpartum morbidity and their causes; Maternal, newborn and child helath (MNCH) services: and the impact of gender, poor food security and physical (in)security on women’s health;
– the state of newborn health in Afghanistan, with a focus on the current level and causes of neonatal mortality, and the status of evidence-based interventions that could contribute to lower neonatal mortality;
– and the MoPH’s Maternal and newborn health (MNH) policies and programs.