Some women are forced to deliver babies alone, while others depend on neighbors without medical training. For many, childbirth has become a struggle for survival.
Before the ceasefire began in October, the UN reproductive health agency, UNFPA, estimated that 55,000 pregnant women were caught in a “spiral of displacement, bombardment, and acute hunger”, lacking reliable access to care.
The impact has been devastating: there has been a sharp increase in premature births, miscarriages, and stillbirths due to severe malnutrition, exhaustion, and constant fear.
“I used the knife to cut the umbilical cord and wet wipes as bandages.”
Around 130 babies are born each day across Gaza. More than a quarter are delivered by caesarean section. One in five is born prematurely or underweight, often with complications that would typically require specialized care.
UNFPA supports 22 health facilities, including five hospitals, and has deployed 175 midwives across the Strip. “Our support has made a difference,” said Nestor Owomuhangi, UNFPA’s representative in Palestine, speaking to our UN News correspondent in the enclave.
Visiting Al-Shifa Hospital – Gaza’s largest maternity hospital, now largely in ruins – he remarked that its continued operation was “nothing short of extraordinary”.
One midwife, Sahar, recounted delivering a friend’s premature baby in the besieged Zeitoun neighborhood with just a kitchen knife heated over a fire. “I had no gloves, no tools,” she explained. “I used the knife to cut the umbilical cord and wet wipes as bandages.”
She described another attempt to reach a woman in labor while drones circled overhead. “They were shooting at anything that moved. I had to shout instructions from a distance,” she recounted. By the time she arrived, the baby had been born blue and struggling to breathe. “He needed an incubator, but there was none.”
Mr. Owomuhangi stated that UNFPA is helping ensure that 98 percent of births still occur in facilities but warned that 18 births a day are happening beyond hospital gates, often with tragic outcomes.
Sahar shared a case where a woman hemorrhaged after delivery. “There was no blood, no transport, no doctor. We couldn’t stop the bleeding,” she said. The mother died, leaving her newborn behind.
UNFPA continues to bring medicines, dignity kits, and reproductive health supplies through Egypt whenever possible.
The agency also provides cash assistance to vulnerable women, a helpline for women and young people, and hygiene items and clothing for displaced families.
“We will keep bringing supplies from around the world,” Mr. Owomuhangi stated, “until every birth in Gaza can happen safely.”
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