The Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN) has announced that Afghanistan ranks ninth in the world in terms of fertility rate.
In a report published on Sunday, November 1, the network said that the birth rate in Afghanistan is high compared with other countries in the region and is similar to that of some countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
The report states that during the previous government, the average number of children born to women was declining. However, this trend varied across different provinces, depending on women’s levels of education and places of residence.
The Afghanistan Analysts Network says that early marriage, limited access to family planning programmes, and restrictions on women’s education and employment are among the factors associated with higher fertility rates.
The network added that, due to the lack of recent statistics on fertility rates in Afghanistan, it had conducted interviews with midwives and doctors across the country.
According to the report, doctors and healthcare workers said they were encountering increasing numbers of adolescent girls who were married and pregnant at hospitals and clinics.
These healthcare workers said that depriving girls of education in schools and the lack of prospects for professional employment were among the factors contributing to an increase in early marriage.
The report warns that adolescent pregnancies and closely spaced pregnancies pose greater health risks to mothers, particularly at a time when maternal healthcare services have deteriorated over the past five years.
