Gaza's pregnant women defy odds to give birth, protect babies

In a flimsy tent crouched low among the smashed buildings of Rafah, Palestine Bahr felt her contractions begin early one day in May. Her baby was coming but how would she make her way through the rubble-strewn streets to hospital without a car?

She managed to find a donkey cart and rattled her way through the streets of the city in southern Gaza as her contractions got stronger.

When she arrived at the Al Helal Al Emirati Maternity Hospital, she was tenth in line and had to wait for three hours before even getting to see a doctor. It was another three hours before she was taken into an operating room where she gave birth to a daughter, Ghina, by Caesarean.

But then Bahr developed blood clots. With no beds available for in-patients, she went back to her tent, resigning herself to travelling to and from the hospital for treatment.

Then, two days after giving birth, she was forced to flee her makeshift home when Israeli forces stormed Rafah. It was the fourth time Bahr, who is originally from the central city of Deir Al Balah, had to flee because of the conflict.

"Since the war began, it has been a constant fight for survival, even for the most basic human right: bringing a child safely into the world," Bahr, 33, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a phone interview from Khan Younis in late May.

"It wasn't just the physical pain, but the constant worry gnawing at me — would my baby be okay? Would I be okay?"

Bahr is among thousands of women who have run the gauntlet of bombs and bullets to bring life into a land where more than 38,000 people have been killed by the Israeli military since its war with Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip began nine months ago, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

The offensive came after Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people and taking 250 hostage, according to Israeli figures.

Since then, over half of Gaza's 2.3 million people have crowded into Rafah, seeking shelter from an offensive that has laid waste to homes, schools and vital infrastructure such as hospitals and clinics.

More than 87,000 people have been wounded and the few hospitals that are still functioning struggle to cope with the daily influx of people injured in Israeli airstrikes.

In May, the World Health Organisation said only about one-third of Gaza's 36 hospitals and primary health care centres were still partially operational.

Israel justifies attacks on hospitals by saying that Hamas uses them for military purposes — a claim both hospital staff and Hamas deny.

For new mothers like Bahr, giving birth in a warzone is just the first step on a traumatic journey marked by constant fear and anxiety.

"The makeshift tent barely shields us from hot weather or bad weather, let alone the constant fear that grips our hearts. It's no place to raise children, no place to recover from childbirth," Bahr said.

"My body is barely healed from childbirth, and now I have to fight to keep my daughter alive."

'BORN INTO HELL'

The UN children's agency Unicef has said that mothers in Gaza face "unimaginable challenges" in accessing adequate medical care, nutrition, and protection before, during and after giving birth.

"The trauma of war also directly impacts newborns, resulting in higher rates of undernutrition, developmental issues and other health complications," Tess Ingram, Unicef's communications specialist, said during a press conference in Geneva in January.

"Becoming a mother should be a time for celebration. In Gaza, it's another child delivered into hell," Ingram said.

In May, the main maternity hospital in Rafah, where Bahr gave birth, stopped admitting patients.

The hospital has seen a drop of over 50 per cent in staff and patients since Israeli forces entered Rafah in May, said Naheel Jarrour, an obstetrician who works at the hospital.

"We had prepared places for pregnant women on the floor to get treatment or even to deliver their babies because there were not enough beds for them," she said, adding that the fighting had prevented her from getting to the hospital for weeks.

Aurelie Godard, head of Medecins Sans Frontieres' (Doctors Without Borders) medical activities in Gaza, said many women are being forced to give birth outside the formal medical system.

"It is still a challenge for many women especially in Rafah to have access to transportation and to hospitals," Godard told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Despite their efforts, humanitarian organisations have been finding it difficult to provide services to around 2,200 women who give birth in Gaza every month, she added.

"Every time the sight of my daughter struggling to breathe takes my soul."