Council On Foreign Relations examines maternal health in Afghanistan

Isobel Coleman, senior fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy and director of the Civil Society, Markets and Democracy Initiative at the Council On Foreign Relations, reports on the council's website on maternal health in Afghanistan, writing that "one out of 11 Afghan women is likely to die in childbirth during her lifetime; Afghan women are 200 times more likely to die giving birth than by a bomb or bullet. Not surprisingly, Save the Children this year ranked Afghanistan the worst country in the world to be a mother. Yet, there are some positive signs. Over the past decade, the international community has made some important investments to improve maternal care that are now just beginning to pay off." Coleman highlights the country's "successful, thriving, and cost-effective midwifery program" (9/30).