Dr. Mary Fariba Afsari

And over and over and over, we heard about stories where some of the children in that family had not survived childhood.

There was just a lack of resources to go around for 12 kids.

And so then if one had a condition or one got sick, then that child didn't survive past seven years old.

So then we were met with these mothers who had lost their children.

And I ended up in a very remote village and in a hospital where one of the OBGYNs had taken it upon himself to allow women to bring IUDs in that they had obtained from the black market.

They would bring them in in their purses.

And he would surreptitiously, I would say, place those IUDs.

The curtains were down.

There were no records made.

We didn't even take down names.

And he would place an IUD.

And an IUD has a little string that comes out of the cervix in order to allow it to be removed easily at some point down the road.

But he would cut those strings super, super short.

So that even a husband might not be aware that their wife had birth control placed because culturally and politically that might not have been okay in some families.

And I watched him do this over and over and over again.

And that's when my mind was sort of blown and also changed because I really realized that

in order to best serve the children of the family, you have to first take care of the mother.

And so if you can take care of a mother, the healthier that a mother is, more likely the family and the children are also going to be healthy.

And that's when I changed my mind.

And from then on, my path was towards becoming an OBGYN.