Nour Beydoun, the regional advisor on protection and gender in emergencies for humanitarian agency, has said that the increase in miscarriages is due to pregnant women having limited health supplies and access to health centres, which puts them at increased risk of infection, Al Jazeera reports.
Miscarriages are also up because pregnant women lack proper food and nutrition, which results in poor fetal health, Beydoun said.
Ammal Awadallah, executive director of the Palestinian Family Planning & Protection Association, speaking to Jezebel, said: “All pregnant women are now at severe risk of delivering in unsafe conditions, being put in situations where they are giving birth in cars, tents, and shelters.”
Many births and even c-sections are even “being performed without basic medical supplies, or anesthesia and without any postnatal care,” Awadallah said.
At Al-Emirati Hospital in Rafah, a woman identified by Doctors Without Borders as Maha sought a delivery room as she began going into labor, but was denied: “All the delivery rooms were full,” an emergency coordinator working with the humanitarian group recounted in a news release published Wednesday. Maha “knew something wasn’t right,” and that she needed care. But without other options, she returned to her tent. Her newborn son died as she gave birth to him in the bathroom near her tent. “Without this war, she would not have lost her son,” the emergency coordinator wrote.
Shortly after Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip began in October, global health groups raised alarms that there was no longer anywhere safe for pregnant women to give birth. More than three months into the siege, conditions have only worsened, and pregnant and menstruating people are especially at risk. Health care workers report a 300% increase in the miscarriage rate among pregnant people in Gaza since Israel’s attacks began three months ago, Nour Beydoun, CARE’s regional advisor on protection and gender in emergencies, told Jezebel.
“All pregnant women are now at severe risk of delivering in unsafe conditions and being put in situations where they are giving birth in cars, tents, and shelters,” Ammal Awadallah, the executive director of the Palestinian Family Planning & Protection Association, told US-based website Jezebel.
The women are “dismissed within a few hours after giving birth, due to the overcrowded facilities and extremely limited resources,” Awadallah added.
This week, the World Health Organization (WHO) Emergency Medical Team Coordinator, Sean Casey, cautioned against the rapid deterioration of the healthcare system and access to humanitarian needs in Gaza.
Doctors Without Borders also warned last month that after months of Israeli bombardment, the healthcare system in Gaza is “completely collapsing.” — Al Jazeera with inputs from Agencies
