She was pregnant of her third child when the Family Health House (FHH) in Waras, a village in Daikundi, was established. The 20 year old Sakina gave birth to baby Setayesh under the guidance of midwife Gul Chaman. For the first time in her life she got medical care during labor. "I can't imagine my life without this FHH."
Sakina found out about the FHH when she one day passed by and saw that a building was under construction. She asked in the neighborhood what was going on and one of the village elders explained it to her. According to her Waras was in desperate need of a midwife. If a woman needed medical care before or during labor, she had to go to the hospital in Olqan, the capital of Sharistan district, which is ours away by car and since nobody owns a car people have to walk for days. "Women often died because of the complications of child birth before. Now it has decreased significantly", she says.
Her previous two child births were very traumatic. "I delivered my two elder children at home accompanied by my mother. It's a very common practice here to give birth in the presence of female family members. We didn't have any facilities except a vat with water and some clean clothes. The umbilical cord was cut by a blunt razor. It was awful. The pain was intolerable", recalls Sakina. Luckily Sakina didn't have any complications during birth otherwise she was forced to go to the hospital in Olqan. "Thanks to our midwife the birth of Setayesh was so easy. I didn't even notice that I delivered a baby girl and everything was so clean. Above all the FHH is so nearby my house; only 20 minutes by foot", she continues.
Setayesh is now four months old. Every now and then Sakina brings her for a check-up. The midwife keeps a record of her growth. Also the mother gets information about family planning. Before Sakina didn't know anything about birth control. Now she is more aware of it. She even takes birth control pills.
Sakina doesn't only go to the FHH for post natal care. But also when Setayesh is ill Gul Chaman examines her with her stethoscope. "Whenever I come here I get the right medicine and within no time my baby gets better. I'm so proud of Gul Chaman."
UNFPA is piloting the Family Health House in the most remote areas of Afghanistan. These are community-based health structures serving 1,500-4,000 people and staffed by a trained Community Midwife recruited from the local population who provides reproductive, maternal, new-born, and child health services.
The Family Health Houses has proven to be highly successful in reaching communities who don't have access to the Basic Package of Health Services of Afghanistan. UNFPA has opened 80 Family Health Houses to date in Bamiyan, Daikundi and Faryab provinces and nine mobile support teams are operational including in Herat and Badakshan.
