Pregnant in Gaza with no clinics: ‘I have no idea where I will give birth’
OOn October 6, Noor Hammad went to work as usual at a clinic in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, where she worked as a nutritionist. In the evening she prepared food for herself and her husband. They had made plans for the birth of their first child in January and were setting up a bedroom for her arrival.
The bedroom no longer exists. Their home was destroyed in airstrikes just days after the couple fled to southern Gaza on October 9.
Hammad now lives in her sister’s two-bedroom house in Khan Younis, where she sleeps on the floor with 25 other members of her family.
The excited anticipation of her baby’s arrival has given way to concerns about her safety, the health of the unborn child and how she will give birth in a war zone.
“I have no idea where I will give birth to my daughter and how I will receive her without shelter or clothing,” she says. “I do not have anything.”
Hammad, 24, is one of an estimated 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza facing an uncertain birth.
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF); the UN Population Fund (UNFPA); The World Health Organization and other agencies said this weekend that with 14 of 35 hospitals and 46 of 72 health centers destroyed or non-functioning, 180 women a day were giving birth without adequate care, including caesarean section without painkillers, and being discharged, still bleeding, within hours after delivery.
In a joint statementthey warned: “Some women are having to give birth in shelters, in their homes, on the streets among the rubble, or in overwhelmed health care facilities, where sanitation deteriorates and the risk of infections and medical complications increases.”
The medical facilities that remain open are flooded with people injured in airstrikes. “Maternal mortality is expected to increase given the lack of access to adequate care,” the agencies said.
“The psychological toll of hostilities also has direct – and sometimes fatal – consequences on reproductive health, including an increase in stress-induced miscarriages, stillbirths and premature births,” they said.
Dr. Zaher Sahloul, president of the aid group MedGlobal, said: “As hospitals turn off the last equipment due to a lack of fuel, neonatal wards go dark and newborns and mothers suffer. These are among the saddest but easily preventable tragedies.”
Hammad witnessed the daily chaos healthcare workers face while volunteering at Nasser Hospital in Gaza. “Injuries are treated in the courtyards and corridors of the hospital,” she said.
“Complete surgical procedures are performed without sterilization or anesthesia. The scenes are very difficult, but this is the least I can offer my compatriots.”
The hospital is so overwhelmed that she has not been able to see a doctor to check on her baby’s health, and she believes there is little chance she will give birth there or at another health care facility.
“I am not ready to give birth at all because hospitals are not receiving cases similar to mine at the moment due to the number of injuries (they are dealing with).”
Meanwhile, Hammad walks to a center of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) two to three times a week to collect canned food and drinking water. The food is not nearly enough for the 25 members of her family and she fears that the poor diet and polluted or salty water will harm her unborn child.
“I eat certain foods that have added preservatives that harm my health and that of my fetus,” she says. “My health and psychological condition are not good.
“I cannot describe the extent of my suffering; all our dreams have been destroyed. I hope this war will end and I can give birth to my daughter in peace.”