GAZA, Saturday, June 8, 2024 (WAFA) - Doctors on one of the only functioning maternity wards left in Gaza have told ActionAid they are seeing rising cases of miscarriages, as the lack of food and stress of constant danger and displacement takes a heavy toll on pregnant women, according to an ActionAid International press statement.
Staff at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat, the only hospital that is currently providing maternity services such as delivery and c-sections in central Gaza, also said that pregnant women are increasingly presenting at the hospital with heavy bleeding and other complications.
“A miscarriage can happen for several reasons. Some of which are the exhaustion of the pregnant woman due to displacement... Malnutrition is one of the main reasons,” Raed Al Saudi, Head of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the hospital, which is currently delivering between 40 and 50 babies per day, despite having just 35 beds – said in a video sent to ActionAid.
“We have cases of women coming from their homes with excessive bleeding. Cases of abruptio placentae or placenta previa, or postpartum bleeding. This obviously poses a great risk to the patient,” he added.
Fadwa, 30, a patient at the hospital who sadly suffered a miscarriage, said: “[I had a miscarriage] during my second month of pregnancy. I was tired and did not have proper nutrition...Nothing to help keep my baby. My doctor said that I must take vitamins and medication such as folic acid to prevent deformation. I also needed to take medication to stabilize my pregnancy. I managed to get folic acid from the clinic but couldn’t get the stabilization medication... We searched many pharmacies but could not find it. I was told to rest. I tried to take as much rest as I could, but it wasn’t really possible.”
Yasmine, Head of the Inpatient and Maternity Department at the hospital, said staff had seen many cases of women losing their unborn babies. She said: “Sometimes there are cases of bleeding and premature births, or miscarriages. Cases of postpartum haemorrhage may result from malnutrition or cases of anaemia.”
“The bombing causes displacement, forcing people to go from house to house in order to avoid bombing and death. With these factors, it is possible that women can have direct bleeding or suffer from high blood pressure. This can lead to a complete separation of the foetus [Placental abruption] and a miscarriage. We deal with many cases in this situation,” she added.
“There are many women who lost their [unborn babies] as a result of direct exposure to bombing. A woman is pregnant and has an injury. On the second day or the same day, she has bleeding. She is delivered to the operating department. These things happen a lot here,” she went on saying.
The lack of sufficient food – 95% of pregnant and breastfeeding women in Gaza face severe food poverty, according to the WHO – is having a major impact. Yasmine said: “Most children are [born] underweight. We referred many children to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital because they suffer from a lack of oxygen, breathing difficulties or inflammation as a result of the lack of hygiene or the spread of diseases. At the same time, the woman, due to nutritional deficiency, develops anaemia, or general emaciation. So, she is unable to give birth or bear the pressure of childbirth, because she is tired and worn out.”
Riham Jafari, Advocacy and Communications Coordinator at ActionAid Palestine said: “It is heartbreaking but hardly surprising that the number of miscarriages is rising considering the atrocious conditions pregnant women in Gaza are being forced to endure. Not only are they experiencing the constant stress and trauma of living in a warzone, where nowhere is safe, but they have hardly anything to eat.”
“When women are exhausted, starving and weak, what chance do their unborn babies have? Doctors are doing their very best to treat the pregnant women who come to them, many in critical condition, but they are running dangerously low on the vital medicines they need to do their jobs – all while being utterly exhausted, overstretched and traumatized themselves,” she added.
“What they, and everyone else in Gaza, urgently need is a permanent and immediate ceasefire,” she concluded.
K.F.
