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Poverty manifests not only as an economic issue but increasingly as a significant humanitarian and societal problem worldwide. This situation poses a severe obstacle to individuals leading dignified lives and accessing fundamental human rights. As the impacts of poverty differ between women and men, it is imperative to develop gender-specific approaches in the resolution processes. Female poverty can adversely affect a country's economic, social, and cultural development, particularly in less developed countries like Afghanistan, exacerbating general welfare issues. Especially in recent years, Afghan women have faced compounded challenges due to gender inequality and poverty, further deteriorating health and welfare conditions. These challenges hinder women's access to adequate healthcare services and the necessary resources and financing for such services. Poverty is a complex issue faced by individuals and societies, with profound economic, social, and psychological dimensions. These impacts must be considered separately by gender to achieve gender equality. Therefore, this study aims to first discuss the feminization of poverty and its relationship with maternal mortality rates, and then to evaluate the effects of prolonged internal conflict, instability, and war in Afghanistan on maternal health and maternal mortality rates based on data from a literature review. As a result of the study, female poverty significantly impacts the economic, social, and cultural progress in underdeveloped countries, such as Afghanistan, stalling development processes and diminishing overall welfare. Recently, the exacerbation of health and welfare issues due to gender inequality and poverty has significantly impeded Afghan women's access to necessary healthcare and funding, critically affecting the overall health status and developmental potential of the society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The relationship between attendance at birth and maternal mortality rates: an exploration of United Nations’ data sets including the ratios of physicians and nurses to population, GNP per capita and female literacy Background. This is the third and final paper drawing on data taken from United Nations (UN) data sets. The first paper examined the global distribution of health professionals (as measured by ratios of physicians and nurses to population), and its relationship to gross national product per capita (GNP) (). The second paper explored the relationships between the global distribution of physicians and nurses, GNP, female literacy and the health outcome indicators of infant and under five mortality rates (IMR and u5MR) (). In the present paper, the global distribution of health professionals is explored in relation to maternal mortality rates (MMRs). The proportion of births attended by medical and nonmedical staff defined as ‘attendance at birth by trained personnel’ (physicians, nurses, midwives or primary health care workers trained in midwifery skills), is included as an additional independent variable in the regression analyses, together with the ratio of physicians and nurses to population, female literacy and GNP. Aim. To extend our earlier analyses by considering the relationships between the global distribution of health professionals (ratios of physicians and nurses to population, and the proportion of births attended by trained health personnel), GNP, female literacy and MMR.

Background. According to estimates of maternal mortality rates from WHO/UNICEF, the West African rates appear to be among the world’s highest. The precision of these estimates from general mortality models is far from ideal and no information on the distribution of causes of death is provided. The principal objective of our study is to describe the maternal mortality, estimation of the rates and distribution of obstetric causes, from a population based survey of pregnant women carried out in West Africa. We also present the main characteristics of the deaths that occurred, including avoidable aspects. Methods. The survey included all the pregnant women living in seven defined areas, from December 1994 through June 1996, depending on the area. Twenty thousand three hundred and twenty-six pregnant women (94.3% of all those identified) agreed to participate and 19,545 were followed throughout the second trimester of pregnancy, delivery and the puerperium. Physicians from the survey team made special enquiries about all maternal deaths. But the deaths occurring during the first months of pregnancy could not be estimated. A subcommittee analyzed all the deaths, assigned the underlying cause and discussed the avoidable aspects of the death. Results. Sixty-six deaths were reported. Fifty-five (three late) were deaths due to obstetric causes; six were fortuitous deaths, and no cause could be defined for five. As a mean and for pregnancy after week 25, the maternal mortality rate was estimated at 311 (95% CI 234–404) per 100,000 live births and 852 (95% CI 456–1457) in rural areas. Hemorrhages accounted for 29% of obstetric deaths, uterine rupture 13%, eclampsia and infectious diseases 11% each. Seventy-four percent of the direct obstetric causes were considered avoidable. Conclusion. Confidential enquiries into maternal deaths in West Africa are not just a concern of the others. They are urgently requested to promote the improvement of health services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports the results of a validation test of the sisterhood method of measuring the level of maternal mortality using data from a Demographic Surveillance System operating in Matlab, Bangladesh. Recording of adult female deaths; Reporting of maternal deaths; Numerical distribution of respondents; Tool of data collection; Implications of maternal mortality studies.

This research highlights the malleability of Maternal Mortality Ratios (MMR) and the ways in which they accommodate a variety of narratives via their claims about women's access to reproductive health services. MMR plays an important role in determining fiscal and legislative priorities for women's health in Mexico and in the discursive practices that shape societal beliefs about appropriate birthing practices and birth attendants. This paper is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Yucatán and Quintana Roo between 2009 and 2017 during Ministry of Health midwifery workshops and approximately fifty interviews with midwives, doctors, public health officials, and parents. It explores the mutability of MMR within the context of political struggles for midwifery in Mexico—both for and against its legality and existence. In Mexico, MMR is often used by bureaucrats and public health workers to reinforce the importance of biomedical obstetric services over midwifery. However, the same metrics are also employed by midwives in critiques of underfunded and often structurally-violent maternal health care services. While doctors attempt to use MMR to prove that birth is inherently dangerous and must take place in hospitals with access to obstetric technologies and interventions, midwives use MMR to demonstrate that birth in hospitals is risky precisely because of those technologies and their inappropriate use, and to draw international attention and funding in support of midwifery. In addition to examining the strategic use of MMR in health-related discourses, this paper interrogates techniques employed by the state to limit midwives' access to births in the name of monitoring and improving MMR. I contend that while discursive uses of MMR to advance professional and political goals are common in both midwifery and biomedicine, the asymmetric power relations of biomedicine vis-à-vis the Mexican state privilege interpretations of MMR that justify and legitimate enhanced bureaucratic surveillance of midwives. • Provides a critique of the use of MMR as the primary metric in maternal health. • Argues that MMR may be used by biomedical practitioners and the state to support existing beliefs about maternal health. • Examines MMR as a tool of reproductive governance. • Ethnographic tracing of maternal health metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]