Afghanistan Mortality Survey 2010 - Measure DHS

As noted earlier in this chapter, the proportion of health facilities offering ANC care increasedvery rapidly during the period 2004-2008, from 62 percent to 95 percent (JHUBSPH and IIHMR, 2009).The AMS 2010 sample is sufficiently large to allow for a more detailed examination of how women’s useof ANC services changed during the five-year period before the survey, i.e., roughly the calendar yearperiod 2006-2010 (1385-1389 in the Afghan calendar). As Figure 4.1 shows, the proportion of womenreceiving ANC care from an SBA increased from 57 percent in the period 36-59 months before the surveyto 68 percent in the year immediately prior to the survey. The gains in coverage were observed in bothurban and rural areas.Figure 4.1 Trends in Antenatal Care from a Medically SkilledProvider by Urban-Rural Residence, Afghanistan 2010100 Percent of last live births All Afghanistan Urban Rural8060408057488386 886862645853 5420036-59 months(2005-2007)24-35 months(2007-2008)12-23 months(2008-2009) 0-11 months(2009-2010)AMS 2010Figure 4.2, which compares the AMS 2010 results with other surveys conducted in Afghanistansince the beginning of the decade (CSO and UNICEF, 2004; JHUBSPH and IIHMR, 2008; ICON-INSTITUTE, 2009), further documents the rapid growth in the use of ANC as access to these services inAfghan health facilities expanded. 1 Overall, ANC utilization appears to have more than tripled during theperiod between the MICS 2003 and the AMS 2010. The increased access to services was especiallymarked in rural Afghanistan, where the MICS 2003 found that only 8 percent of women who gave birth inthe two-year period prior to the survey had received ANC from a skilled provider.1 Some caution should be used in interpreting the trend results since the surveys vary with respect to samplecoverage, the manner in which questions were asked, the reference period for which the results apply and otherfactors. In particular, the trend in rural areas may be somewhat overstated in the AMS 2010 results as 16 percent ofthe rural population, largely in the South zone, could not be interviewed due to security concerns. These womenlikely have more limited access to services than the rural women who could be interviewed. Nevertheless, takentogether, findings from the various surveys document a very rapid rise in ANC.66 | Maternal Health