We were all surprised. That's what led to additional review and much more analysis. Susan Brock, health adviser with USAID in Kabul, says it was such an improvement that they delayed the release to crunch the numbers again. Last November, USAID confirmed the findings. But some experts who worked on the survey still think the data is too good to be true, like Dr. Kenneth Hill, a Harvard University demographer. Because there are question marks still hanging over the estimates, I'm not sure that there is an enormous value in the data. Hill says many Afghans simply don't discuss family matters with strangers. Conditions for data collection in Afghanistan are desperately difficult. Knocking on someone's door and asking them details about their children and their household is not something most people would want to do. USAID says their statisticians adjusted the findings for many anomalies which are all explained honestly in the survey. But three of the six experts on the survey's technical advisory group told NPR they still have doubts, like Julia Hussein of Aberdeen University, who has worked on maternal mortality in Afghanistan since the 1990s. You've got to match what you know in terms of evidence with what you see with your eyes, virtually. And I suppose so my instinctive reaction to figures like this, that have been reported in the survey, is that I just find them unbelievable, knowing what sort of care is available in Afghanistan.