Nasrin* was bleeding heavily when she reached Khost maternity hospital in eastern Afghanistan. Her condition was bad. The bleeding started after she had given birth, but her family delayed seeking care because it wasn’t safe to travel by night.

We rushed her to the operating room for surgery and a blood transfusion. But the next day, her bleeding started again. We performed another operation, but she continued to lose blood. It looked as if she might die.

LIFESAVING CARE, LIMITED RESOURCES

In Khost, blood is a precious resource. We have a very limited amount and knew we couldn’t use it all for one person. All we could do was pack the wound and hope this would help stop the bleeding.

When we examined Nasrin two days later, we found our technique had worked. Her bleeding had stopped. The whole team worked together to help her recover and she was eventually well enough to go home to her family.

Packing wounds and providing blood transfusions are everyday medical processes. Yet they can have such a big impact. I saw so many people like Nasrin, who arrived in critical condition and could be treated with a few basic techniques.

BARRIERS FOR FEMALE HEALTH WORKERS

But access to medical training is out of reach for women in Afghanistan. In December 2024, the Taliban barred women from studying medicine, forcing medical and midwifery schools for women to close.

We are seeing the impact in our maternity programs, which need female healthcare workers to fully function. Khost maternity hospital has one of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF’s) busiest maternity wards in the world. We are struggling to fill all the necessary positions.

Many of the female doctors I spoke to worried about their circumstances. But they still looked out for each other. They shared food during Ramadan, made jokes and had a sisterhood. Whenever I’ve worked there, I’ve been touched by how quickly my colleagues make me feel welcome and bring me into the fold.

One of the special things about working for MSF is the constant reminder of the resiliency of the human spirit. Despite the many challenges, my female colleagues come to work every day with an incredible drive to learn and to do whatever they can to support people in need of medical care.

*Name has been changed.