🔗 Share this article The Targeting of Childbirth: How Women and Babies Became Targets in Global Conflicts. Dozens of women had taken refuge in a maternity hospital 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. “I heard the screams of women and children,” he states. “They executed everybody inside the hospital. Survival meant running for your life.” This brutal attack stands as one of the most shocking examples in the ongoing war tearing the North African nation apart. Combatants forced their way into the building, leaving dead more than 460 patients and their companions. Rights organizations have called it “an act of unspeakable brutality,” and a prime example of the vanishing safeguards for civilians living amidst warfare in several nations at war. A Record of Violence Against Maternal Care Despite every significant nation have agreed to the international laws of war, which require them to safeguard civilians, the past year has witnessed an unprecedented spike of attacks on healthcare systems. Expectant mothers are highly exposed due to their reliance on locally available medical care. An investigation of records show an alarming level of violence: nearly 300 incidents targeting or hindering places and people associated with childbirth over the last three years, including at least 119 bombardments of hospitals and delivery wards. “These incidents do not represent inevitable outcomes of conflict. They form a pattern of reproductive violence.” The majority of these incidents have happened in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan, where countless of women bearing children are confined. Mothers have lost their lives, blocked from reaching help, or made to have their babies in deplorable situations. The data also indicates that at least 68 childbirth professionals and specialists have been murdered, 15 kidnapped, and 101 taken into custody—sometimes during medical procedures. A Worldwide Emergency for Mothers and Newborns Statistics are thought to be a substantial underreporting, as they are limited to incidents documented publicly. In many conflict zones, information is scarce. Last year, analysis showed that half of all women who died during pregnancy or childbirth lived amidst hostilities. This underscores a horrifying trend. In addition to the loss of life, these attacks are wrecking maternal and neonatal care facilities, jeopardizing the future to societal repopulation and recovery. The Situation in Gaza In Gaza, the ruinous consequences on reproductive health rights has been cited by a UN commission as part of the basis for genocide allegations. Even after ceasefires, doctors report that women and children are still perishing from medical shortages, owing to severe deficits of medicine and equipment. Accounts describe women giving birth in rubble because hospitals were out of reach. “Direct shelling hitting the wards, operating rooms, and maternity wards,” says 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 maternity and neonatal facilities have been attacked and rendered unusable in Ukraine. Journalism from conflict zones describe births forced underground and extreme psychological pressure leading to maternal health issues. “The attacks on us are intentional,” asserts the head of obstetrics at a repeatedly damaged hospital in Kherson. Russian authorities have denied deliberately targeting civilians. “In fact, every facility is now a potential target,” comments a medical director in Sumy. “Even if air defence intercepts a drone, the falling debris may hit a hospital.” Accountability Evaporates For the more than 676 million women living close to deadly warfare, there are scarce guarantees and even fewer war crimes prosecutions for those targeting maternity care. This void of justice has created a “atmosphere of lawlessness,” argues a human rights lawyer. “Assaults against maternal services, like coerced birth or involuntary sterilization, may constitute acts of genocide by hindering reproduction.” 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 scarce because of a communication blackout from rebel-held areas. Nevertheless, shelling in Goma damaged a maternity hospital, killing mothers, babies, and nurses. 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 The majority of childbirth fatalities 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, pushing them toward risky home births lacking professional help. “If maternity hospitals are being deliberately targeted points toward a broader and more sinister pattern: the use of attacks on medical facilities as a means of intimidation and to tear apart the social fabric,” observes a legal researcher. “There is no absolute protection for hospitals in war. Under the Geneva conventions, medical facilities can lose their protected status if used for acts deemed ‘militarily advantageous’, which has often been cited as an excuse.”