It was a day in November 2023, when the Gaza war had started almost a month ago.
Alaa’ is one of an estimated 155,000 pregnant women and new mothers in the Gaza Strip who were forced to live in tents without any medical care, medicine or medical assistance while fleeing shelling and bombardment last year in 2023. They are forced to give birth without clean water.
Thanking health workers at a field hospital in the city of Khan Younis who helped her deliver, she wrote in a letter, “The sound of rockets and bombs overshadowed my joy, but I was determined to overcome every difficulty. my child.”
“Whatever happens, we have to avoid it.”
Mother’s letter from Gaza.
critical situation
The condition of pregnant women in Gaza is dire: weak from exhaustion and hunger. All traces of health services there have almost disappeared. With no hospitals fully operational, they have few options for care and treatment.
There have been hundreds of attacks on medical facilities and currently only 17 of the 36 hospitals are partially functioning.
There are also severe shortages of fuel and basic necessities, with health workers being killed or forced to flee. What is left is not enough when the entire population of Gaza is experiencing an increase in injury, illness and disease.
This includes cases of polio, reported for the first time in more than 25 years.
Risks arising from displacement
More than 5 million women in Gaza lack vital services such as antenatal and postnatal care, family planning and treatment of infections. Among them, more than 17 thousand pregnant women are on the brink of famine.
Ala also wrote in her letter, “Seven months have passed since I had to leave my house and live in a tent.
I cried a lot thinking that my brave child would never see the walls of the house I always dreamed of building.”
But, his troubles did not end there, as he was soon expelled from there as well.
Ala’a wrote, “I cried from the bottom of my heart when I realized that (I) had to give birth to my child outside the house. 50 days later, in the middle of the bombing, I was screaming and crying to escape from there. At that moment I was afraid. Got that I could lose my child.”
Currently, an estimated 1.9 million people are displaced in Gaza, many of whom have been forced to flee from place to place numerous times in 2023.
Since the start of the war, rates of abortion, obstetric complications, low birth weight and premature births have increased alarmingly. The main reasons were stress, malnutrition and lack of maternal care.
“There we were, forced to start from scratch – no shelter, no home, not even a future,” Ala’a wrote, recalling the moment he escaped the bombing. “We started over. Built a tent, and Promised the other again, that no matter what happens, we must survive.
ray of hope
“After two weeks I felt a little pain…it was labor pains! (I thought not. It’s too early, I want to have my baby at home.”
As Alaa was in labor for four days, she went to a field hospital in Khan Yunis run by UK-Med. It is a humanitarian non-governmental organization (NGO), with a specialized health and maternity unit supported by the United Kingdom and UNFPA, the United Nations Agency for Gender and Reproduction.
She added, “I came here for a checkup and everything looked fine. The midwives and nurses were kind and loving. I spoke to Dr. Helen and she encouraged me to come in and have the baby.”
When the time came for delivery, they all made sure that Alaa could safely deliver her baby. “I came straight to the hospital at 2 am. All the midwives were found ready. However, they told me that there could be risks in giving birth naturally.”
UNFPA provides reproductive health kits and other supplies to hospital maternity units. In addition, it ensures that health care workers can provide comprehensive care in a variety of critical conditions, including obstetric emergencies.
Despite the war and the lack of clean water, food and security, Alaa and her newborn baby Mohammed are now in perfect health.
She wrote, “Coming here to give birth was a wonderful decision. I love that even under so much pressure, these people are always smiling. This group is awesome.”
Healthcare on target
The impact of the ongoing war in Gaza on women and girls is staggering: more than 5 million women are deprived of vital services such as antenatal and postnatal care, family planning and treatment of infections; More than 17,000 pregnant women are living in starvation.
UNFPA and its partners are working tirelessly to provide health care, provide reproductive health support, distribute life-saving drugs, medical equipment and supplies, and deploy teams of midwives and health workers in official and temporary camps.
In addition, six mobile maternal health units have been set up in field hospitals to provide emergency obstetric care to mothers and their newborns at any location.
But the lack of cease-fires, full access to health care and sustainable funding is making it difficult to sustain aid.
Ala, despite all the difficulties, did not give up hope.
“On behalf of my son Mohammed, thank you for all your help,” he wrote, expressing his gratitude to the hospital staff.
“We are grateful to you. I hope we meet again under better circumstances.”