Afghanistan's government is collaborating with local and international partners, including UNICEF, to strengthen and improve midwifery education. Much success has been seen in Afghanistan over the years in the area of childbirth, maternal mortality, and midwifery.
Afghanistan contains the second highest rate of fatalities in relation to childbirth in the world, 1 out of every 8 women die from childbirth complications. Hemorrhaging and labor complications are of the most common reasons women are dying.
Altering SES levels of women enduring childbirth face different fatality rates. The percentages of death range from 16 to 64% depending on their location in Afghanistan.

• Community Midwifery Education (CME): is a 18 month, skill-based training program which trains women in widwifery. The number is midwives available in the country has increased rapidly, from 467 in 2002 to 2,167 in 2008. 

The World Health Organization recommends one midwife or other skilled birth attendant for every 175 women during pregnancy, childbirth, and the post-natal period.

• Afghanistan should have 4,546 midwives to cover 90% of pregnancies. 
• The country has only 467 trained midwives in 2002.
• Fewer than half of health facilities had any female staff.
• In rural Nooristan, Afghanistan, male to female health personnel was 43:1