MSF runs a busy maternity service in the district public hospital in Dasht-e-Barchi, one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul. 

In 2015, of the 11,787 admissions in the maternity service, over 28% were complicated cases, such as postpartum haemorrhage, pre-eclampsia, and placental abruption. According to World Bank data, Afghanistan’s maternal mortality rate for 2015 was 396 per 100,000 live births.