🔗 Share this article Childbirth Under Attack: How Women and Babies Became Casualties in Worldwide Wars. A group of thirty mothers were seeking shelter in a maternity hospital in El Fasher, Sudan, when the massacre started. Some had just delivered their newborns, while others were actively in labor. Present at the hospital after dark, a 28-year-old lab technician, a technician named Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, became one of the few known survivors. “There were cries of women and children,” he states. “A massacre was taking place 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 North African nation apart. Combatants raided the hospital, leaving dead more than 460 individuals receiving care and their families. Rights organizations have labeled it “an unspeakable atrocity,” and a prime example of the vanishing safeguards for civilians caught in conflict zones in several nations at war. A Record of Violence On Childbirth Services Despite every significant nation have signed the Geneva conventions, which require them to safeguard civilians, the past year has witnessed an unprecedented spike of assaults against medical infrastructure. Mothers in labor are particularly at risk due to their reliance on locally available medical care. Research and compiled data uncover an alarming level of violence: nearly 300 violent acts against 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 constitute a pattern of reproductive violence.” The majority of these incidents have happened in regions embroiled in intense conflict, where hundreds of thousands of women bearing children are confined. Mothers have lost their lives, denied medical attention, or forced to give birth in perilous and unsafe environments. The data also indicates that at least 68 midwives, obstetricians, and gynaecologists have been murdered, 15 abducted, and 101 detained—sometimes while assisting births. The Global Crisis in Maternal Health The numbers are probably a grave undercount, as they are limited to incidents documented publicly. In many areas of fighting, communications are sparse. Last year, findings indicated that 50% of women who lost their lives in maternal circumstances lived amidst hostilities. This underscores a catastrophic reality. In addition to the loss of life, these attacks are obliterating hospitals and wards, creating a grave danger to community survival. Conditions within Gaza In Gaza, the ruinous consequences on the right to maternal care has been cited by a UN commission as part of the basis for accusations of genocidal acts. Following truces, 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. “Our facility has endured missile strikes hitting the wards, operating rooms, and maternity wards,” states the head of a major hospital’s gynecology department. A military spokesperson has rejected deliberately targeting maternity care or trying to alter birthrates. The Crisis in Ukraine Since early 2022, at least 80 childbirth centers have been damaged or destroyed in Ukraine. Accounts from embattled medical centers describe births taking place in basements and skyrocketing stress leading to maternal health issues. “The attacks on us are intentional,” claims the head of obstetrics at a repeatedly damaged hospital in Kherson. Officials from Russia have rejected deliberately targeting civilians. “The truth of the matter is, every facility is now a potential target,” comments a medical director in Sumy. “If a drone is destroyed, the falling debris could impact a hospital.” A Culture of Impunity For the more than 676 million women living close to deadly warfare, there are scarce guarantees and rare trials for atrocities for those targeting maternity care. This void of justice has fostered a “atmosphere of lawlessness,” argues a human rights lawyer. “Assaults against maternal services, like coerced birth or involuntary sterilization, can be understood as acts of genocide by destroying a group's future.” Other Conflict Zones In El Fasher, the area had been cut off from 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 lack of access from rebel-held areas. Nevertheless, shelling in Goma damaged a maternity hospital, resulting in tragic loss of life. In Myanmar, hospitals have come under fire 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 Most maternal deaths are averted with basic healthcare, but war destroys healthcare networks. Rights groups note that fear is now driving women away from facilities once considered safe, pushing them toward risky home births devoid of emergency care. “The deliberate attack on maternity wards speaks to a broader and more sinister pattern: the use of attacks on medical facilities as a means of intimidation and to destroy community bonds,” observes a legal researcher. “Hospitals are not completely safe for hospitals in war. Under the Geneva conventions, medical facilities are not inviolable if used for acts deemed ‘militarily advantageous’, which has increasingly been used as a justification.”