WUNRN
AFGHANISTAN:
Little Health Care for Women in Paktika Province
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There is not a single female doctor in Paktika province,
provincial health officials say |
SHARANA, 1 February 2009
(IRIN) - “I will not take my wife to a male doctor even if she dies,” said Pir
Gul from Paktika Province, southeastern Afghanistan, explaining that such a
thing went against tradition.
Gul’s mindset is common in Paktika
Province where there is not a single female doctor, though the Central Statistics Office estimated Paktika’s
female population at over 180,000.
“This is a very serious problem,” Nangyalai (he only
uses one name), the deputy director of Paktika’s health department, told IRIN,
adding that there were only a few female nurses and midwives in the whole
province.
With the help of aid organisations, the Ministry of
Public Health (MoPH) increased the number of midwives in the country from 400
in 2001, to about 2,500 in 2008, but that is still not enough.
“An estimated 4,546 midwives are needed to cover 90
percent of the country’s pregnancies,” the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said in
its State of the World
Children’s report 2009.
After Niger, Afghanistan has the second highest maternal mortality rate
(MMR) in the world, and each
pregnant Afghan faces a 1:8 risk of dying from complications, according to
UNICEF.
Challenges
Limited access to maternal health care, poor awareness
about safe delivery practices and scarcity of professional health workers are
three factors contributing to the high MMR in Afghanistan, UNICEF says.
Strong conservative traditions also hinder women’s
education and awareness in Paktika.
“Societal norms require many women to be escorted
outside the home by a male relative, thus restricting their mobility to access
health facilities,” the UNICEF report said.
MoPH officials in Kabul said they were committed to
expanding basic health services country-wide, but “insecurity is the biggest
problem impeding the work of female health workers,” Deputy Health Minister
Faizullah Kakar told IRIN.
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Lack
of access to professional health care is a major factor in Afghanistan's high
maternal and infant mortality rates |
Amateur midwives
No one has reliable figures on maternal and infant
mortality rates in Paktika where deaths mostly result from preventable and
curable diseases, aid workers say.
In the absence of professional health personnel, women
seek treatment and medical care from amateur midwives and herbal medicines.
“Usually an elderly woman in a village attends during delivery,” said Rozi
Khan, a local resident.
Many women are feared to be suffering, and even dying,
from post-delivery infections due to poor hygiene and lack of access to
antibiotics, experts said.
Women and young girls with other diseases have little or
no option but to endure pain and inconvenience until a natural recovery is
achieved. Some use locally produced herbal medicines, while others seek advice
and help from local drug sellers [See an IRIN video on
Afghan women using opium as a substitute for medicine].
In extreme cases and when an illness is prolonged, those
who can afford to, take a sick female to Kabul or Pakistan for medical
treatment.
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