🔗 Share this article Childbirth Under Attack: How Women and Babies Became Casualties in Worldwide Wars. Thirty women were huddled for safety in a maternity hospital in El Fasher, Sudan, as the slaughter began. Several had recently given birth, while others were experiencing childbirth. Present at the hospital after dark, a 28-year-old lab technician, Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, managed to survive the ordeal. “The sounds of screaming reached me of women and children,” he states. “They executed everybody inside the hospital. Survival meant running for your life.” This appalling incident stands as one of the most shocking examples in the two-year civil war tearing the African nation apart. Militiamen raided the hospital, allegedly slaughtering more than 460 individuals receiving care and their families. Rights organizations have called it “an unspeakable atrocity,” and a prime example of the deteriorating protection for civilians caught in conflict zones in Ukraine, Gaza, Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Sudan. A Record of Violence Against Maternal Care Despite every significant nation have agreed to the international laws of war, which obligate them to protect civilians, the past year has seen a record number of attacks on healthcare systems. Expectant mothers are particularly at risk due to their dependence on locally available medical care. Research and compiled data show an alarming level of violence: nearly 300 incidents targeting or hindering places and people associated with childbirth over the last three years, including at least 119 direct strikes on hospitals and delivery wards. “These incidents do not represent standard wartime hazards. They represent a systematic assault on childbirth.” The majority of these assaults have occurred in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan, where countless of pregnant women are trapped. Mothers have lost their lives, denied medical attention, or made to have their babies in dangerous and unsanitary conditions. The data also indicates that at least 68 maternal health workers have been murdered, 15 abducted, and 101 taken into custody—sometimes while assisting births. The Global Crisis for Mothers and Newborns Statistics are thought to be a substantial underreporting, as they only include incidents covered by the media. In many areas of fighting, reporting is limited. Last year, findings indicated that one in two mothers who perished while pregnant or giving birth were in a conflict area. This underscores a catastrophic reality. Beyond killing women and staff, these attacks are destroying hospitals and wards, posing a long-term threat to community survival. Conditions within Gaza In Gaza, the ruinous consequences on reproductive health rights has been cited by a UN commission as one reason behind accusations of genocidal acts. Despite periods of calm, doctors report that women and children are still perishing from inadequate care, owing to desperate lacks of medicine and equipment. UN officials have relayed women giving birth in rubble because hospitals were inaccessible. “We’ve had rockets hitting the wards, operating rooms, and maternity wards,” states the head of a major hospital’s gynecology department. A military spokesperson has contested deliberately targeting maternity care or aiming to influence birthrates. The Crisis in Ukraine Since early 2022, at least 80 maternity and neonatal facilities have been damaged or destroyed in Ukraine. Reports from frontline hospitals describe births forced underground and skyrocketing stress leading to problems during delivery. “We are being singled out,” asserts the head of obstetrics at a repeatedly damaged hospital in Kherson. Russian authorities have denied deliberately targeting civilians. “The reality is, every facility faces the threat of assault,” comments a medical director in Sumy. “Even if air defence intercepts a drone, the falling debris may hit a hospital.” A Culture of Impunity For the over half a billion females living close to deadly warfare, there are scarce guarantees and a stark lack of legal accountability for those attacking childbirth services. This lack of accountability has fostered a “culture of impunity,” says a human rights lawyer. “Attacks on reproductive healthcare, like coerced birth or involuntary sterilization, are potentially acts of genocide by destroying a group's future.” Other Conflict Zones In El Fasher, the area lacked access to humanitarian aid long before the hospital attack, with malnutrition rising sharply, especially among children and pregnant women. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, information is limited by a inability to report from rebel-held areas. Nevertheless, shelling in Goma damaged a maternity hospital, killing mothers, babies, and nurses. In Myanmar, medical facilities have been bombed and dozens of midwives and patients have faced detention, death, or harm over the past two years of civil war. The Collapse of Safe Childbirth A large proportion of mother deaths are averted with basic healthcare, but war shatters health systems. Rights groups note that terror is compelling women away from facilities once considered safe, pushing them toward risky home births devoid of emergency care. “If maternity hospitals are being deliberately targeted indicates a wider and more disturbing trend: the use of violence against hospitals as a tool for terror and to destroy community bonds,” says a legal researcher. “Safeguards are not guaranteed for hospitals in war. Under the Geneva conventions, medical facilities can lose their protected status if used for acts deemed ‘harmful to the enemy’, which has often been cited as an excuse.”