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Afghanistan worst place for mothers

06 May 2011 00:38 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Afghanistan has become the worst place in the world to be a mother, with mothers and children facing â€œgrim conditions,â€ while Norway has been rated the best, an annual report says, APA reports quoting Press TV.

"Afghanistan has the highest lifetime risk of maternal mortality and the lowest female life expectancy in the world," putting it at the bottom of the Mothers’ Index presented the nonprofit group Save the Children.

The report says that one in six kids die before the age of five and one in three suffer from malnutrition.

â€œThere are not enough experienced health workers in our rural clinics and that’s why a high number of pregnant women are losing their lives here, and it is on the rise,â€ Najibah Stanakzal, a doctor in Kabul, told a Press TV correspondent.

Ten years after the US invasion, many Afghans blame the foreign health agencies in Afghanistan for not doing enough.

â€œThe foreign troops as well as health agencies have not paid attention to the issue of healthcare for pregnant women. Instead, they’ve mostly focused on military issues,â€ Latifah Sultani, Human Rights Commission’s women coordinator in Afghanistan told Press TV.

According Afghanistan’s health ministry, the growing unrest in different areas of the country are big challenges for the government to implement healthcare programs.

â€œThe war and insecurity have created big challenges for the health sector in our country. Around 30 percent of our clinics are understaffed,â€ spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health Ghulam Sakhi Kargar said.

In Afghanistan, less than 16 percent of women are using modern contraception, and statistics show that every mother in Afghanistan is likely to suffer the loss of a child, according to Save the Children.