A midwife recorded zero pregnancy deaths in seven years

More than 450 community clinics known as family health houses now serve remote villages across Afghanistan, providing maternal and newborn care in places where fewer than one-third of people can reach a hospital. In Helmand province, midwife Marzia screens Ram Bibi, a 30-year-old expecting her sixth child, for anemia and has taught her to spot danger signs in pregnancy. Bibi's earlier children were all born at home without skilled help. She and her newborns got infections each time. The clinics, launched by the United Nations Population Fund in 2009, sit on community-owned land and are staffed by midwives recruited locally. At the Arkalik clinic in northern Afghanistan, midwife Laila Amini sees up to 70 patients a day in a building designed for 300 a month. She has not recorded a single pregnancy-related death in seven years. Amini uses a digital delivery app daily, and, despite the hours, says she is motivated to go to work every morning.