Childbirth Under Attack: How Women and Babies Became Targets in Global Conflicts.

Dozens of women were huddled for safety in a maternity hospital in El Fasher, Sudan, at the onset of the horrific violence. Several had recently given birth, while others were experiencing childbirth.

On duty during that fateful night, a 28-year-old lab technician, Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, managed to survive the ordeal. “There were cries of women and children,” he explains. “They were killing everyone inside the hospital. We who were able to escape, did so.”

This appalling incident stands as a particularly egregious examples in the two-year civil war tearing the North African nation apart. Armed soldiers stormed the facility, allegedly slaughtering more than 460 innocent people inside.

Rights organizations have called it “a crime beyond words,” and a clear case of the vanishing safeguards for civilians living amidst warfare in multiple global hotspots.

A Record of Violence On Childbirth Services

Although world powers have agreed to the international laws of war, which obligate them to protect civilians, the past year has experienced a historic high of violence targeting health services. Mothers in labor are exceptionally vulnerable due to their dependence on locally available medical care.

Research and compiled data show an alarming level of violence: nearly 300 attacks on and disruptions to places and people associated with childbirth over the last three years, including at least 119 bombardments of hospitals and delivery wards.

“These are not standard wartime hazards. They constitute a pattern of reproductive violence.”

The majority of these assaults have occurred in regions embroiled in intense conflict, where a vast number of pregnant women are trapped.

Women have been killed, blocked from reaching help, or compelled to deliver in dangerous and unsanitary conditions. The data also indicates that at least 68 midwives, obstetricians, and gynaecologists have been killed, 15 abducted, and 101 detained—sometimes in the act of delivering babies.

A Worldwide Emergency in Maternal Health

Statistics are thought to be a significant underestimate, as they capture solely incidents documented publicly. In many conflict zones, reporting is limited.

Last year, analysis showed that 50% of women who lost their lives in maternal circumstances resided in a war zone. This underscores a horrifying trend.

Apart from fatalities, these attacks are destroying maternal and neonatal care facilities, creating a grave danger to demographic stability.

The Situation in Gaza

In Gaza, the catastrophic impact on reproductive health rights has been cited by a UN commission as part of the basis for accusations of genocidal acts.

Even after ceasefires, doctors report that women and children succumb from medical shortages, owing to critical shortages of medicine and equipment. Agencies have reported women having children by the roadside because hospitals were out of reach.

“We’ve had rockets targeting the wards, operating rooms, and maternity wards,” says the head of a major hospital’s gynecology department. A military spokesperson has contested deliberately targeting maternity care or seeking to affect 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 occurring in shelters and skyrocketing stress leading to birth complications.

“The attacks on us are intentional,” claims the head of obstetrics at a repeatedly damaged hospital in Kherson. The government has disputed deliberately targeting civilians.

“The reality is, every facility is now a potential target,” comments a medical director in Sumy. “If a drone is destroyed, the falling debris could impact a hospital.”

Accountability Evaporates

For the hundreds of millions of women living near active conflicts, there are few safeguards and even fewer war crimes prosecutions for those assaulting reproductive health.

This void of justice has led to a “atmosphere of lawlessness,” explains 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 lacked access to humanitarian aid long before the hospital attack, with malnutrition rising sharply, especially among children and pregnant women.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, information is limited by a inability to report from rebel-held areas. Nevertheless, shelling in Goma hit a neonatal ward, resulting in tragic loss of life.

In Myanmar, clinics have been attacked and dozens of midwives and patients have suffered violence over the past two years of civil war.

The End of Safe Deliveries

Most maternal deaths are averted with basic healthcare, but war collapses medical infrastructure. Rights groups note that terror is compelling women away from facilities once considered safe, pushing them toward risky home births lacking professional help.

“When childbirth centers become intentional targets speaks to a larger and alarming strategy: the use of violence against hospitals as a tool for terror and to tear apart the social fabric,” notes a legal researcher.

“Hospitals are not completely safe for hospitals in war. Under the Geneva conventions, medical facilities are not inviolable if used for acts deemed ‘militarily advantageous’, which has now become a standard defence.”