A number of women interviewed by Salam Watandar complain about the challenges they face when giving birth at home and in health centers. For this report, 10 women aged 20 to 48 from eight provinces, all of whom had given birth at home or in a hospital during the past year, were interviewed. The findings show that these women faced challenges such as the cost of childbirth and medicines, long distances and a lack of transportation, shortages of health workers and facilities, bleeding and severe pain during home births, as well as inappropriate treatment and inadequate facilities in hospitals.<\/p>\n
Bibi Nasima Rahmani, a 29-year-old graduate of Sharia and mother of two children from Badakhshan, says both of her children were born in a hospital. She adds that despite going to a government hospital, the cost of childbirth and medicines puts additional financial pressure on families.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are many problems during childbirth, including economic problems, because, as you know, there are a lot of expenses. If you have savings, that is better, but if you do not, you have to borrow money, and you face many problems,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Tamana, a 21-year-old resident of Aqcha district in Jawzjan who has three children and gave birth to all of them at a clinic, says that due to the long distance from health centers, she faced the risk of losing her baby.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have two daughters and one son. I went to a clinic each time I gave birth. We live in a remote district, and the clinic is far away. By the time we reached the clinic, I was in a very difficult situation. I was about to lose my life and my baby,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n
Zahra Ehsani, a 35-year-old resident of Daikundi, says she has four daughters. Two were born at home and the other two at a health center. She says she does not have good memories of giving birth at home because her deliveries were accompanied by prolonged pain and heavy bleeding.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy two daughters who were born at home were delivered there because there was no midwife. My pain was very severe and lasted a long time. After giving birth, I had heavy bleeding, and after that, I developed mental health problems,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
The challenges women face are not limited to giving birth at home. A number of them say that they also face various challenges when giving birth at health centers.<\/p>\n
Sahar Ahmadi, a 27-year-old resident of Nijrab district in Kapisa and a teacher at a school in the province, has one child. She describes her experience of giving birth at a health center,<\/p>\n
\u201cI had one delivery, which took place in a hospital. I faced many problems during childbirth. I went to Panjshir, but the facilities there were not good enough. These problems had a negative impact on my childbirth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, obstetricians and gynecologists, based on their experience in childbirth and maternal care, identify bleeding, anemia, high blood pressure, closely spaced pregnancies, a shortage of specialists, and the heavy workload of doctors in the obstetrics and gynecology section as major challenges in childbirth and the provision of health services.<\/p>\n
Roman Abaseen Sadat, an obstetrics and gynecology specialist, says that in 2025 and 2026, they faced many cases of high blood pressure among pregnant women, a situation that can put mothers\u2019 lives at risk. According to her, the young age of mothers is one of the factors contributing to this challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2025 and 2026, we experienced many cases of eclampsia and preeclampsia, in which a patient\u2019s blood pressure rises and falls. When a patient\u2019s blood pressure rises, changes occur in her body, and she may go into a coma. In a coma, patients may not receive enough blood to the brain, which increases maternal deaths. One of the reasons was that the mothers were under 20 years old,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Sunita Bahram, an obstetrics and gynecology specialist, says that to reduce the challenges of childbirth, women should become pregnant at an appropriate age, between 18 and 29. According to her, women at this age have sufficient vitamins and minerals in their bodies, and they are more likely to have a normal delivery.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best age is between 18 and 29. At this age, a pregnant woman is less likely to experience serious pathologic conditions or disorders during pregnancy and childbirth. This is because women at this age have sufficient vitamins and minerals in their bodies, can remain stronger and can have proper nutrition,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n
However, official figures from the Ministry of Public Health show an increase in registered births in 2025. Officials at Ministry of Public say that 1.3 million births were registered across the country in 2025, compared with 1.1 million in 2024.<\/p>\n
Obstetricians and gynecologists believe that the main causes of these challenges during childbirth, in addition to pregnancy at a young age, are a lack of medical facilities, inadequate medical equipment, and a shortage of health workers at health centers. However, officials from the Ministry of Public Health say that the reason behind the increase in registered births in 2025 is greater access to health services, because in the past, many births took place at home and were generally not registered.<\/p>\n
Reporter: Sharifa Qasemi<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A number of women interviewed by Salam Watandar complain about the challenges they face when giving birth at home and in health centers. For this report, 10 women aged 20 to 48 from eight provinces, all of whom had given birth at home or in a hospital during the past year, were interviewed. The findings show that these women faced challenges such as the cost of childbirth and medicines, long distances and a lack of transportation, shortages of health workers and facilities, bleeding and severe pain during home births, as well as inappropriate treatment and inadequate facilities in hospitals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":30707,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[990,186,218,24,6],"tags":[12,1578,2172,2173,2174],"class_list":["post-30706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-investigative-reports","category-health","category-women","category-afghanistan","tag-afghanistan","tag-childbirth","tag-continuing-challenges","tag-birth-rate-increases","tag-birth"],"views":12,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30706"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30709,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30706\/revisions\/30709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}