Social workers from PSI are working at a one-day reproductive health clinic at a local health centre in the countryside near Kampong Speu, Cambodia. The health clinic in which they were working had no electricity and no hot running water that day. (Photo: Ben Johnson)
Monday, April 4, 2011By MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR / IPS WRITER
KRAING KAOK, Cambodia — Death haunts women in this Cambodian village at a moment of happiness—when they give birth.
"Today, nothing frightens Cambodian women more than having to give birth," says Mu Sochuea, former minister of women’s affairs. "It is costly, risky and not safe for the mothers and the babies."
Cambodia has acquired the notoriety of having among the highest maternal mortality rates in the region. Five women die every day during childbirth, according to UN reports.
Public health experts attribute the high death toll to lack of sufficient midwives, limited health care centres, the cost of health services, and a bias in remote rural areas towards untrained traditional birth attendants.
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