KABUL—For a woman in the last few weeks of her pregnancy, 24-year-old Sohaila walks surprisingly quickly as she invites us into the first-floor guest room of her traditional Afghan house in the outskirts of Kabul in October.
The large yet delicately decorated room will serve as her makeshift maternity ward when she is scheduled to go into labor in three weeks. Sohaila, who requested her name be changed, goes over her plans as she, her grandmother, the translator, and I take seats on the many toushaks (long traditional cushions used for seating) that will be used as her bed during the delivery. “We will cover everything with a clean cloth,” Nooriya, Sohaila’s 62-year-old grandmother whose name has also been changed, explains. “Two women from the family will assist me with her delivery.” Although never formally trained, the senior woman has been a midwife for most of her life, having learned the skill from her mother and aunts over the years.
