The Perils of Childbirth in Afghanistan

Desperate
Sangimo, 40, arrives at a maternity hospital in Faizabad in great pain after a 12-hour journey by jeep from her village home. Having endured four miscarriages, she and her husband are working hard to make her latest pregnancy — into its fourth month when this photo was taken — a success. The family was forced to sell its arable land in order to make the journey to the hospital.

• How Can the Incidence of Maternal Mortality be Reduced?