🔗 Share this article The Targeting of Childbirth: How Women and Babies Became Casualties in Worldwide Wars. Dozens of women had taken refuge in a maternity hospital in El Fasher, Sudan, as the slaughter began. Several had recently given birth, while others were experiencing childbirth. Working that night, a 28-year-old lab technician, a technician named Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, lived to tell the tale. “The sounds of screaming reached me of women and children,” he explains. “A massacre was taking place inside the hospital. Those who could run, fled.” This horrifying event stands as a particularly egregious examples in the two-year civil war tearing the African nation apart. Militiamen raided the hospital, allegedly slaughtering more than 460 patients and their companions. Rights organizations have described it as “an act of unspeakable brutality,” and a stark illustration of the collapse in safety for civilians trapped in war-torn areas in multiple global hotspots. A Record of Violence Against Maternal Care Despite every significant nation have agreed to the Geneva conventions, which commit them to defending civilians, the past year has seen a record number of violence targeting health services. Expectant mothers are highly exposed due to their need for locally available medical care. Data analysis and investigations show an unprecedented scale of attacks: nearly 300 violent acts against places and people associated with childbirth over the last three years, including at least 119 bombardments of hospitals and delivery wards. “These are not inevitable outcomes of conflict. They form a pattern of reproductive violence.” The majority of these attacks have taken place in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan, where hundreds of thousands of pregnant women are trapped. Deaths have occurred, prevented from accessing care, or compelled to deliver in deplorable situations. The data also indicates that at least 68 maternal health workers have been slain, 15 kidnapped, and 101 taken into custody—sometimes in the act of delivering babies. A Worldwide Emergency for Mothers and Newborns The numbers are probably a significant underestimate, as they capture solely incidents documented publicly. In many areas of fighting, information is scarce. Last year, it was reported that one in two mothers who perished while pregnant or giving birth were in a conflict area. This underscores a catastrophic reality. Beyond killing women and staff, these attacks are destroying hospitals and wards, creating a grave danger to community survival. The Situation in Gaza In Gaza, the devastating effect on the right to maternal care has been cited by a UN commission as part of the basis for declaring certain actions a genocide. Even after ceasefires, doctors report that women and children succumb from medical shortages, owing to critical shortages of medicine and equipment. Agencies have reported women giving birth in rubble because hospitals were out of reach. “We’ve had rockets hitting the wards, operating rooms, and maternity wards,” explains the head of a major hospital’s gynecology department. A military spokesperson has contested deliberately targeting maternity care or aiming to influence birthrates. Ukraine's Ordeal Since early 2022, at least 80 childbirth centers have been attacked and rendered unusable in Ukraine. Journalism from conflict zones describe births taking place in basements and extreme psychological pressure leading to maternal health issues. “Russia is targeting us deliberately,” claims the head of obstetrics at a repeatedly damaged hospital in Kherson. Russian authorities have denied deliberately targeting civilians. “The reality is, every facility is now a potential target,” notes 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 near active conflicts, there are few safeguards and rare trials for atrocities for those targeting maternity care. This lack of accountability has fostered a “culture of impunity,” argues a human rights lawyer. “Assaults against maternal services, like coerced birth or involuntary sterilization, can be understood as acts of genocide by destroying a group's future.” Other Conflict Zones In El Fasher, the area was isolated from humanitarian aid long before the hospital attack, with malnutrition spiking dangerously, especially among children and pregnant women. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, information is restricted due to a inability to report from rebel-held areas. Nevertheless, shelling in Goma hit a neonatal ward, killing mothers, babies, and nurses. In Myanmar, hospitals have come under fire and dozens of midwives and patients have suffered violence over the past two years of civil war. The Collapse of Safe Childbirth The majority of childbirth fatalities are averted with basic healthcare, but war shatters health systems. Rights groups note that terror is compelling women away from facilities once considered safe, leading them to risky home births lacking professional help. “If maternity hospitals are being deliberately targeted speaks to a larger and alarming strategy: the use of attacks on medical facilities as a weapon to spread fear and to break societal cohesion,” notes 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 ‘harmful to the enemy’, which has increasingly been used as a justification.”