https://weshare.unicef.org/archive/12113-Afghanistan-Maternal-Mortality-INT-HD-PAL-2AMZIF108Y.html

DATELINE: 9 June 2013, Herat Province, Afghanistan

SHOTLIST:

1. Various shots, women with children walking into village mosque.
2. Various shots, Bibigul Momand, Midwife, Mobile Health team, attending to women and children.
3. SOUNDBITE (Dari) Bibigul Momand, Midwife, Mobile Health Team:
“Health facilities are very far from here and people can’t afford to travel. They have to cope with this alone. Sometimes sick people die. So I’m coming here to support them.”
4. Various shots, women walking to health workers to collect medications
5. Wide shot, maternity hospital in Herat.
6. Med shot, Rukshana sitting at the her bed in maternity Waiting Home with her child
7. Med shot, Rukshana speaking to her sister
8. Wide shot, pan right to left, women at the Maternity Home
9. Close shot, Rukshana’s baby
10. Med shot, Rukshana’s baby and sister
11. SOUNDBITE (Dari) Rukshana, Mother:
“The children are sometimes born dead and the mothers bleed a lot during the deliveries. The children also suffer from health problems. They get sick after being born and sometimes die from illnesses like pneumonia.”

12. Wide shot, doctors examining patients at Maternity ward
13 Close shot, patient
14. Med shot, nurse carrying newly born at neonatal ward
15. Various shots, maternity ward with mothers, children and nurses

SCRIPT

In Afghanistan’s desolate Herat province, women rarely seen outside their homes crowd into this village mosque.

They are here for a lifesaving appointment with Bibigul Momand, the midwife who has delivered thousands of babies.

Afghanistan remains one of the world’s most dangerous places for women to have children because of limited and inaccessible medical facilities.

The fate of their young children is even worse. At least one in ten will die before their fifth birthday.

But UNICEF is working hard to reverse these odds.

By supporting mobile medical teams like this one, the organization is taking maternal care to the remotest corners of Afghanistan.

SOUNDBITE (Dari) Bibigul Momand, Midwife, Mobile Health Team:
“Health facilities are very far from here and people can’t afford to travel. They have to cope with this alone. Sometimes sick people die. So I’m coming here to support them.”

Most of these deaths are preventable with vaccinations, basic medical care and hygiene.

Serious health problems are referred to larger facilities, like the Khairia Rezaee Maternity Hospital in Herat.

It’s here that Rukshana just delivered a baby girl.

She travelled for five hours by road from her isolated village to stay at the hospital’s Maternity Waiting Home for expecting and new mothers.

Rukshana says she has already lost three children to miscarriage and home deliveries, and she could not bear to loose anymore.

SOUNDBITE (Dari) Rukshana, Mother:
“The children are sometimes born dead and the mothers bleed a lot during the deliveries. The children also suffer from health problems. They get sick after being born and sometimes die from illnesses like pneumonia.”

Doctors say this service is a lifeline for many rural women, who often die in childbirth.

The Maternity Hospital now delivers up to 80 babies a day with pregnant women pouring in from across the province.

Through UNICEF’s mobile health teams and the Waiting Homes, women and children in the country’s most isolated corners are getting more access to lifesaving health care than ever before.

Jun 2013 - Bringing health care to Afghanistan's vulnerable women. Improving women's access to medical care is helping reverse troubling trends in Afghanistan, one of the world's most dangerous places to bear children.

2013

COUNTRIES:

Afghanistan

Unique identifier:

UN01083

Shoot Date:

June 09, 2013

Title: