🔗 Share this article Childbirth Under Attack: How Women and Babies Became Targets in Global Conflicts. Dozens of women were huddled for safety in a childbirth facility in El Fasher, Sudan, when the massacre started. Among them were new mothers, while others were actively in labor. Working that night, 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. “A massacre was taking place inside the hospital. Those who could run, fled.” This horrifying event stands as among the worst examples in the two-year civil war tearing the African nation apart. Combatants forced their way into the building, reportedly killing more than 460 patients and their companions. Rights organizations have described it as “a crime beyond words,” and a prime example of the deteriorating protection for civilians trapped in war-torn areas in Ukraine, Gaza, Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Sudan. A Record of Violence On Childbirth Services Despite every significant nation have signed the international laws of war, which require them to safeguard civilians, the past year has witnessed an unprecedented spike of violence targeting health services. Women undergoing childbirth are exceptionally vulnerable due to their reliance on locally available medical care. An investigation of records show an unprecedented scale of attacks: nearly 300 attacks on and disruptions to places and people associated with childbirth over the last three years, including at least 119 direct strikes on hospitals and delivery wards. “These are not inevitable outcomes of conflict. They form a systematic assault on childbirth.” The majority of these assaults have occurred in regions embroiled in intense conflict, where a vast number of expectant mothers are stranded. Women have been killed, prevented from accessing care, or compelled to deliver in perilous and unsafe environments. The data also indicates that at least 68 childbirth professionals and specialists have been slain, 15 kidnapped, and 101 arrested—sometimes in the act of delivering babies. The Global Crisis in Maternal Health Statistics are thought to be a substantial underreporting, as they only include incidents reported in news outlets. In many conflict zones, reporting is limited. Last year, it was reported that half of all women who perished while pregnant or giving birth resided in a war zone. This underscores a catastrophic reality. Beyond killing women and staff, these attacks are wrecking hospitals and wards, jeopardizing the future to societal repopulation and recovery. Conditions within Gaza In Gaza, the devastating effect on reproductive health rights has been cited by a UN commission as a factor in accusations of genocidal acts. Even after ceasefires, doctors report that women and children are still perishing from a lack of proper treatment, owing to critical shortages of medicine and equipment. Accounts describe women delivering babies amidst ruins because hospitals were out of reach. “Direct shelling fired at the wards, operating rooms, and maternity wards,” explains the head of a major hospital’s gynecology department. A military spokesperson has rejected deliberately targeting maternity care or aiming to influence birthrates. The Crisis in Ukraine Since early 2022, at least 80 childbirth centers have been struck and ruined in Ukraine. Journalism from conflict zones describe births taking place in basements and extreme psychological pressure leading to problems during delivery. “Russia is targeting us deliberately,” asserts 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. “When defensive systems shoot down an aircraft, the falling debris may hit a hospital.” A Culture of Impunity For the hundreds of millions of women living within range of fighting, there are minimal protections and rare trials for atrocities for those targeting maternity care. This void of justice has led to a “atmosphere of lawlessness,” argues a human rights lawyer. “Attacks on reproductive healthcare, like forced pregnancy or forced sterilisation, may constitute 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 increasing drastically, 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, medical facilities have been bombed and dozens of midwives and patients have been arrested, killed, or injured over the past two years of civil war. The Collapse of Safe Childbirth A large proportion of mother deaths are preventable with routine care, but war destroys healthcare networks. 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 speaks to a wider and more disturbing trend: the use of violence against hospitals as a weapon to spread fear and to break societal cohesion,” says a legal researcher. “Safeguards are not guaranteed for hospitals in war. Under the Geneva conventions, medical facilities may forfeit their immunity if used for acts deemed ‘prejudicial to the opposing side’, which has often been cited as an excuse.”