Some are forced to deliver alone. Others rely on neighbors without medical training. For many, childbirth has become a matter of survival.
Before the fragile ceasefire began in October, the United Nations reproductive health agency UNFPA estimated that 55,000 pregnant women were trapped in “a spiral of displacement, bombing and acute hunger,” without reliable access to care.
Question of life and death
The impact was devastating: premature births increased sharply, as did miscarriages and stillbirths linked to severe malnutrition, exhaustion and constant fear.
I used the knife to cut the umbilical cord and wet wipes as bandages
Around 130 babies are born every day in Gaza. More than a quarter give birth by cesarean section. One in five people are born too early or underweight, often with complications that would normally require specialist care.
UNFPA now supports 22 health facilities, including five hospitals, and has deployed 175 midwives throughout the Gaza Strip. “Our support has made a difference,” said Nestor Owomuhangi, UNFPA representative in Palestine, speaking to our UN News correspondent in the enclave.
Touring Al-Shifa Hospital – once Gaza’s largest maternity ward, now largely in ruins – he said its continued operation was “simply extraordinary”.
One of the midwives, Sahar, described delivering a friend’s premature baby in the besieged Zeitoun neighborhood with nothing more than a kitchen knife heated over a fire. “I didn’t have any gloves or tools,” she said. “I used the knife to cut the umbilical cord and wet wipes as bandages.”
She recounted another attempt to reach a woman in labor as drones circled overhead.
“They were shooting at everything that moved. I had to shout instructions from a distance,” she explained.
By the time she reached the woman, the baby was already out, blue and struggling to breathe. “He needed an incubator, but there wasn’t one.”
Tragic birth
Mr. Owomuhangi said UNFPA helps ensure that 98 percent of births still take place in facilities, but warned that 18 births a day take place well beyond hospital gates, often with tragic consequences.
Sahar described one such case where a woman hemorrhaged after giving birth. “There was no blood, no transport, no doctor. We couldn’t stop the bleeding,” she said. The mother died, leaving behind her newborn baby.
UNFPA continues to deliver medicines, dignity kits and reproductive health supplies through Egypt whenever possible.
UNFPA’s commitment
The agency also provides cash assistance to vulnerable women, a helpline for women and youth, and hygiene items and clothing for displaced families.
“We will continue to bring supplies from around the world,” Mr. Owomuhangi said, “until every birth in Gaza can take place safely.”
Originally published in The European Times.
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