Afghanistan's hospital midwives

By Paul Anderson
BBC News, Kabul

Afghan women are gradually gaining more access to healthcare

Afghanistan's first generation of professional midwives fully trained to deliver babies in hospitals has just graduated.

Afghanistan has one of the highest maternal and child mortality rates in the world.

They suffer from illnesses that would be easily managed elsewhere in the world.

It is estimated that between 50 and 70 mothers across the country die every day while in childbirth.

Little professional help

There is no doubting the value that these professional midwives will offer to the country's women.

Every day across this vast impoverished land, women give birth at home, but fewer than a tenth of them receive any professional help.

There will be no shortage of work for the midwives

Cultural traditions prevent male doctors attending a birth.

Child mortality rates are little better. One in every four children fails to make it past their fifth birthday.

The first class of 138 midwives graduated from a two year course funded by the United States Agency for International Development and the Aga Khan Development Network.

For many, their first day post graduation was spent meeting non-government agencies trying to improve health service provision across the country.

The programme aims to train nearly 1,000 midwives by the end of next year - a fraction of what is needed according to the health minister, but a welcome start nonetheless.

More than two decades of conflict and the repressive nature of the Taleban's rule has left such health services woefully under equipped and under staffed.