Trained midwives in Yemen make the rounds to care for mothers and babies

Yemen’s 30 million people face ongoing political uncertainty, a longstanding humanitarian crisis, and one of the highest fertility and maternal and infant mortality rates in the world.

USAID’s Systems, Health and Resiliency Project stepped in to help reduce maternal and infant mortality in Yemen by focusing on reproductive, maternal, newborn, child health, and nutrition coupled with support services to tackle health challenges such as COVID-19, malnutrition, and other life-threatening conditions.

USAID has trained and deployed more than 200 community midwives who are improving the quality of services provided to mothers and children. The midwives are making it possible for families to access much-needed health care that they would otherwise not get because of the prohibitive cost of traveling long distances to health facilities, and also the payment of medical fees at the local health facility.

Between June 2021 and December 2022, USAID-supported community midwives have supported nearly 140,000 women with health information and services, and referred more than 16,000 cases of diarrhea and acute respiratory infections in children—among the leading causes of death for children under the age of five—to health facilities.