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Afghan child mortality linked to uneducated mothers
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-30 15:56 HONG KONG -- High child mortality rates in conservative Afghanistan are linked not just to war but to mothers being uneducated and having little or no say when their children need medical help, a study has found. Child mortality rates in Afghanistan are among the highest in the world, and one out of every five Afghan children will not survive beyond age five.
"As in other countries, the primary caregivers of small children in Afghanistan are their mothers; however, in this country, mothers are subject to a number of restrictions in the decision-making process regarding child healthcare," said the article published by a team of Afghan and Japanese researchers. The researchers said they interviewed mothers of the children and found the problems correlated most closely with mothers not having any autonomy (79.1 percent) and education (71.7 percent). Up to 18.3 percent of the mothers also delivered their first child before they were 16, which meant they were married when they were still children, the researchers wrote. A shortage of basic material needs was also observed in 59.1 percent of the households. The researchers defined a lack of maternal autonomy to mean mothers requiring permission from the head of the household to bring a child to the doctor, or if she required another person, usually a male relative, to accompany her to a clinic with the child. Afghanistan is deeply conservative and women's movements are still restricted in many parts of the country. |
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