As US funding dries up, Pakistan's overstretched maternal health system is teetering on the brink. Clinics are closing, care is vanishing, and the most vulnerable — poor mothers and newborns — are being pushed to the margins.
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00:01This baby is just one day old.
00:05His aunt tells us it's too soon to name him as he's fighting to survive.
00:10So is his mother, who's still recovering from complications during childbirth.
00:16Pakistan is one of the most dangerous places to give birth
00:20and has one of the world's highest infant and maternal mortality rates.
00:24Every second counts here at the Women and Children's Hospital in Abdubad
00:29and the clock is ticking.
00:32Dr Raheel Shahzad, the deputy medical superintendent of the government-run facility shows us around.
00:39Every hallway we walk through and every corner we turn
00:43we see women crowded together waiting in dimly lit corridors that are packed to capacity.
00:50It's already overcrowded and Dr Shahzad warns it could get worse.
00:55He's expecting a spillover of patients who once relied on US-funded maternal health programmes.
01:02That's after US President Donald Trump announced a funding freeze in January.
01:07The UN says that around 60 maternal health clinics have already shut down across the country
01:12and more are likely to follow.
01:15Of course, it's going to happen. Why won't it happen?
01:18If it's going to happen, we can do better support.
01:22Despite his optimism to cope, it's overwhelmingly apparent just how underfunded this facility already is.
01:29The lights go off as we film.
01:31But doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals continue to work.
01:35This is the reality of free healthcare in Pakistan.
01:41Around 80% of people pay for private services,
01:44leaving only the poorest and most vulnerable with no choice but to rely on government facilities
01:50or international aid projects.
01:52An hour south of Aptabad in Mansara, we visit one of these aid projects,
01:58a maternal health clinic that was once supported by USAID.
02:02It's not easy to find the building.
02:04Since the funding cuts, the clinic has had to remove its sign,
02:07which featured the USAID logo, making it hard for people to tell it even exists.
02:14But it is here, and it's here where we meet Safiya Bibi,
02:18a mother of five who says she does not know where she will go if the clinic shuts.
02:23Shela Rani is the lady health visitor in charge.
02:50She relied on the project for her own medical training
02:53and to obtain essential supplies for her patients like clean delivery kits.
02:57We're working very hard for her and with our parents,
03:02we did a couple of deliveries for the mother and child health.
03:06The family platen of children did a number of check-up.
03:08We've got funds from the US aid and it had to pay.
03:12We all went to the patient with a patient for us.
03:15If we gave a patient at the rate of 300 or 400 to the rate of patients,
03:20We're going to show you inside the room where Shaila would do everything for women.
03:37Women would give birth on this table.
03:40Shaila would then place the babies onto this bed.
03:43And Shaila even offered ultrasound appointments to women.
03:46This was a vital hub for women of this community who weren't able to get to hospitals.
03:54The UN warns the US funding cuts in Pakistan will leave around 1.7 million people, including 1.2 million Afghan refugees, without access to vital maternal health services.
04:06And in Haripur, home to one of the country's largest Afghan refugee camps, that impact is already being felt.
04:14Mothers like Rahana, who have very little money, depended on a maternal clinic funded partially by the United States and run by the government.
04:23She gave birth to her son there in December, just weeks before the funding was frozen.
04:28She gives birth to her son.
04:43When they were in the hospital, the hospital was very difficult for their patients.
04:58We were in the hospital.
05:03They were very difficult for their patients and the patients were very difficult for their patients.
05:11And if we don't want to go to the hospital, then we'll go to the hospital and we'll go to the hospital.
05:18We'll go to the hospital and we'll go to the hospital and we'll go to the hospital.
05:27That clinic used to operate 24-7.
05:30Now, since the cuts, the government can only afford to open during the day.
05:35But childbirth doesn't follow a schedule. It can happen at any time.
05:40For pregnant women who live in this refugee camp, the struggle is constant.
05:45They fled war. They faced the looming threat of deportation.
05:49And now they must confront the real possibility of giving birth without adequate care.
05:57The clinics that helped vulnerable women like Rohana and Safiya are on the brink of closure.
06:02And while the Pakistani government is trying to fill the gap, it's a huge undertaking.
06:10Halloran-Fehren, the hospital and the hospital bed.
06:11For the minimum of augusts, when they are pro-
06:13Halloran-Fehren ...
06:14The medical doctor was involved in this hospital and for the androcks.
06:16I'll show you the hospital for the opportunity to go to the hospital.
06:17And if they're looking for the hospital, don't they need to follow the hospital.
06:19And if they're looking for the hospital, they would be able to shut off.
06:20And the patients always come to the hospital.
06:22I'm so happy to have them.
06:23And when they're coming to the hospital, they say, they're going to start people out.
06:24The hospital is getting to the hospital.
06:25It's a huge undertaking.
06:26The hospital is getting to the hospital.
06:27The hospital is getting to the hospital.