🔗 Share this article The Targeting of Childbirth: 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, at the onset of the horrific violence. Some had just delivered their newborns, while others were experiencing childbirth. On duty during that fateful night, a 28-year-old lab technician, Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, managed to survive the ordeal. “I heard the screams of women and children,” he explains. “They were killing everyone inside the hospital. We who were able to escape, did so.” This appalling incident stands as a particularly egregious examples in the ongoing war tearing the African nation apart. Armed soldiers raided the hospital, reportedly killing more than 460 innocent people inside. Rights organizations have labeled it “an act of unspeakable brutality,” and a prime example of the collapse in safety for civilians trapped in war-torn areas in Ukraine, Gaza, Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Sudan. A Record of Violence Against Maternal Care Despite every significant nation are signatories to the Geneva conventions, which require them to safeguard civilians, the past year has experienced a historic high of violence targeting health services. Expectant mothers are highly exposed due to their dependence on locally available medical care. Data analysis and investigations reveal an shocking trend: nearly 300 incidents targeting or hindering maternity care facilities, staff, and pregnant women over the last three years, including at least 119 bombardments of hospitals and delivery wards. “These incidents do not represent natural consequences of war. They form a deliberate strategy of violence against reproduction.” The majority of these incidents have happened in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan, where a vast number of women bearing children are confined. Women have been killed, prevented from accessing care, or made to have their babies in dangerous and unsanitary conditions. The data also indicates that at least 68 childbirth professionals and specialists have been murdered, 15 kidnapped, and 101 arrested—sometimes during medical procedures. A Worldwide Emergency in Maternal Health The numbers are probably a significant underestimate, as they are limited to incidents reported in news outlets. In many war-torn areas, communications are sparse. Last year, analysis showed that half of all women who lost their lives in maternal circumstances were in a conflict area. This underscores a catastrophic reality. Apart from fatalities, these attacks are obliterating maternal and neonatal care facilities, jeopardizing the future to demographic stability. The Situation in Gaza In Gaza, the devastating effect on reproductive health rights has been cited by a UN commission as a factor in genocide allegations. Despite periods of calm, doctors report that women and children continue to die from medical shortages, owing to severe deficits of medicine and equipment. Agencies have reported women delivering babies amidst ruins because hospitals were out of reach. “Direct shelling 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 seeking to affect 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 occurring in shelters and skyrocketing stress leading to problems during delivery. “The attacks on us are intentional,” claims the head of obstetrics at a repeatedly damaged hospital in Kherson. The government has disputed deliberately targeting civilians. “In fact, every facility faces the threat of assault,” comments a medical director in Sumy. “When defensive systems shoot down an aircraft, the falling debris could impact a hospital.” Accountability Evaporates For the more than 676 million women living within range of fighting, there are scarce guarantees and rare trials for atrocities for those targeting maternity care. This lack of accountability has led to a “culture of impunity,” explains a human rights lawyer. “Attacks on reproductive healthcare, like forced pregnancy or forced sterilisation, 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 increasing drastically, especially among children and pregnant women. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, information is restricted due to a lack of access from rebel-held areas. Nevertheless, shelling in Goma damaged a maternity hospital, causing fatalities among patients and staff. 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 avoidable with standard medicine, but war shatters health systems. Rights groups note that fear is now driving women away from facilities once considered safe, leading them to risky home births lacking professional help. “When childbirth centers become intentional targets points toward a wider and more disturbing trend: the use of attacks on medical facilities 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 are not inviolable if used for acts deemed ‘prejudicial to the opposing side’, which has increasingly been used as a justification.”