GAZA, (PIC)
Rasha Mahmoud will never forget that bitter day, the day when labor pains came to her amid the falling bombs. “The situation was difficult to describe, I felt like my heart was going to stop.”
Rasha says that on the evening of June 20th, she felt terrible pains in her lower abdomen and knew it was the onset of labor pains. But the sounds of the Israeli bombardment on the Salehi towers in Al-Nuseirat made her freeze in her place – she was neither able to scream nor had the strength to move, while the ambulances kept coming and going to transport the wounded and the martyrs.
Rasha (30 years old) is not new to childbirth, as this was her fourth delivery, but it was the first time she experienced the pain of labor and the horror of war together. “I had heard and read the testimonies of women and girls who lived through this experience in previous wars on Gaza, but I never imagined I would live this moment inside a beach tent.”
Rasha’s husband went out to look for a vehicle to take them to Al-Awda Hospital west of the Al-Nuseirat camp, but that was not easy. “The area looked like ghosts except for the sound of the drone and the explosions of the bombs.”
She adds, “My husband was confused, not knowing what to do, between his fear for me and his concern for our children whom we would leave in the tent, until we dared to call our neighbor and ask her to take care of them until we returned.”
She pointed out that as soon as they arrived at the hospital, the Israeli warplanes bombed a neighboring house. “Fear filled the place and the hospital was crowded, and the birth was difficult despite being a normal delivery. I tried to go to the bathroom before delivery but I couldn’t because of the long queue of the displaced.”
When asked about her biggest concerns at that moment, she says, “I was afraid of losing the fetus, afraid for my children whom I had left behind. I wished my mother was with me in these difficult moments. I could hear the screams of the injured children and women as they cried from the horror of the bombardment.”
She continues, “I prayed to God that the war would end before my due date. Giving birth during war is a suffering that does not stop there. I searched the market for health supplies for me and my child, but many are missing from the markets, and here is my son Muhammad, who has already passed his first month in the hottest months of the year.”
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimates that around 20,000 children were born in the hell of the Israeli genocide war on Gaza since its outbreak on October 7, 2023, with a child being born every 10 minutes in these horrific conditions. A UN agency also pointed to the presence of about 50,000 pregnant women in the Gaza Strip.
The disastrous conditions, the collapse of health services, the lack of hygiene, and the spread of epidemics instill fear in the hearts of women for their children in general and newborns in particular, including Sarah Ahmed, who gave birth in the first months of the war.
Sarah (28 years old), who works as a nurse, says that the fear is not only on the day of delivery, as the consequences of giving birth during the war are exhausting in terms of providing a suitable environment for the newborn or food for the breastfeeding mother, or providing diapers and milk for the baby.
She asks, “How can a newborn, hours and days old, live in a tent, devoid of all the basic necessities of human life? How can the child get enough breastfeeding when the mother does not even have a healthy meal?”
She added, “How can the child’s father compensate his son for the lack of breastfeeding when artificial milk is not available in the markets and is sold at very high prices, where one is sold for about 60 shekels, and if I get one of what the international institutions offer, it barely lasts a week.”
Sarah also pointed to the difficulties faced by women during childbirth, where the targeting of hospitals in the Gaza Strip casts a gloomy shadow on postpartum care for the mother, exposing her to complications such as bleeding, infections, or postpartum depression, which is extremely dangerous if it befalls the mother in these circumstances.
She adds, “The concerns are not limited to childbirth itself, but extend to several challenges, such as keeping premature newborns in incubators amid the depletion of many medicines and medical supplies, the severe shortage of fuel and the lack of electricity, and food.”
According to data published by the Ministry of Health in Gaza, about 60,000 Palestinian pregnant women in the enclave are suffering from malnutrition and dehydration due to the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Strip, which has resulted in closure of dozens of hospitals.
Mai Younis frequently visits a clinic affiliated with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), where she complains of intermittent bleeding. The doctor told her that this is due to lack of a healthy diet and repeated displacement, and that she may face the risk of preterm birth.
Mai says she has been displaced three times since the start of the war, and had to walk long distances from Gaza to the central region before boarding a vehicle to Khan Yunis, then walked on foot again to Rafah and from there to Deir Al-Balah.
Pregnant women face health problems due to displacement and stress, as well as lack of water and food. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) says Israel is impeding the entry of aid packages related to childbirth cases.
The United Nations confirms in its gender-based publication on the impact of the war on Gaza’s women and girls, that access to clean water is of vital importance for breastfeeding mothers and pregnant women, who need to consume larger amounts of water and calories compared to others.
According to UNICEF, 95% of pregnant or breastfeeding women face acute malnutrition.
UN agencies warn of the psychological effects of the war and its direct consequences on reproductive health, including an increase in preterm births and stress-induced miscarriages.
The head of the humanitarian affairs and reconstruction coordinators in Gaza, Sigrid Kaag, says doctors in Gaza are observing a rise in miscarriage rates in the first and second trimesters of pregnancy, without knowing the reasons behind it, but it is certain that women in the Gaza Strip are suffering from psychological, physical and health stresses.
