Maternal Mortality in Afghanistan: An Emerging Cultural Complexity

While helping run clinics in Kabul, Afghanistan, with doctors and nurses, I heard from many families about the gravity and prevalence of maternal mortality and also met several women that have dealt with this issue. I possessed the first-hand anecdotal evidence, but needed factual proof. As a result, this paper takes a statistical approach to examining one of Afghanistan's leading killers: complications in pregnancy. It also reports on findings from the literature from several articles about gender inequity, reproductive health knowledge, and post-partum hemorrhage, seeking to explain several cultural factors that promote maternal mortality in Afghanistan. Lastly, it identifies possible solutions and accompanying barriers to maternal health (or attributing factors to maternal mortality), making the claim that nurses could greatly improve the situation by educating the women and the community. The goal of this paper is to raise awareness of maternal mortality in Afghanistan.