It is estimated that there are 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza, and quite a few 180 give birth every day in inhumane conditions, according to the World Health Organization. Women are forced to give birth in plastic tents after several months without any medical examination, and those who manage to give birth in hospital are discharged a few hours later and have to go home with their newborns. Born to unhealthy business.
Pascale Coissard, Médecins Sans Frontières emergency coordinator in Gaza, from the Emirati maternity hospital in Rafah, admits that “it is very difficult to be a new mother in Gaza. The situation of these women is extremely complicated because they have no house to stay in.” Most of them are in tents. If they are lucky enough to be in tents, some of them don’t even have tents, they have a piece of plastic and have to live under it with their children,” he explains.
“Not everyone has access to hospitals to give birth. I have heard of women giving birth in latrines next to the tents in which they live. “Plus, they may not even have clothes for their newborn after the birth,” says Pascale Coissard excitedly. In addition, it must be taken into account that the first 24 hours after birth are the ones in which the risk of complications is highest. It is therefore important to keep patients in the hospital for as long as possible.
The image of thousands of children living in unsanitary and inhumane conditions in the Gaza Strip is already widespread, and there will be many more – warns Doctors Without Borders – if the bombings are not stopped and a war is launched that will be short before the end there is an end. the four months. MSF’s emergency coordinator in Gaza assures that to address these crises they need:that the women and mothers in Gaza can give birth, have their babies in conditions and that this war ends. “A ceasefire and peace so that they can return without fear that their children will live under bombs.”
The Emirati hospital in Rafah, where Médecins Sans Frontières staff care for dozens of Palestinian women giving birth every day, is completely overloaded and there is a critical shortage of medical supplies.