Aseel Mousa in Gaza
Women such as Hanan face labour at home without medical help or pain relief, with only neighbours and relatives to help
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When Hanan went into labour earlier this month, she was caught between the pain and fear of facing childbirth without medical help, and the terror of Israeli airstrikes and snipers if she tried to reach hospital. With hospitals emptying of supplies, raided by the Israeli military and already filled far beyond capacity with victims of the war, she decided to bring her youngest son into the world at home.
A mother, Sabreen al-Azami, who was displaced from Beit Lahia due to Israeli attacks and took refuge in a tent, holds her daughter in Rafah, Gaza. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
A nurse who had taken shelter in their apartment building came to help, but could not offer more than basic medical advice. Hanan’s other children listened in horror to the reality of birth without medical support or pain relief.
“The pain was excruciating, and I was desperate to get to a hospital. But the situation outside made it impossible; going to the hospital meant risking our lives,” Hanan said, a few days after the birth. There is almost no electricity in the Gaza Strip, with power supplies cut, power plants damaged, and fuel supplies for generators almost exhausted after more than two months of Israeli attacks and a tight blockade.
The women living in Hanan’s apartment building rallied together so that Haya, the nurse, could monitor her patient through the long night, using their phone batteries to light up the room.
“Despite the challenges of charging our phones … they lit up the room with their flashlights to help Nurse Haya during my delivery,” Hanan said. They also tried to support her through the labour, encouraging her and trying to help her regulate her breathing to endure the brutal pain.
The UN has said it is “gravely concerned” about pregnant women who cannot access healthcare in Gaza. In October it estimated more than 50,000 women in Gaza were pregnant, with over 100 expected to give birth every day amid shortages of basic necessities including food and water, and little access to healthcare….
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/29/hospital-risking-lives-terror-giving-birth-gaza
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