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

Thirty women had taken refuge in a maternity hospital in El Fasher, Sudan, as the slaughter began. Among them were new mothers, while others were experiencing childbirth.

Present at the hospital after dark, a 28-year-old lab technician, a technician named Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, managed to survive the ordeal. “The sounds of screaming reached me of women and children,” he states. “They were killing everyone inside the hospital. Those who could run, fled.”

This brutal attack stands as one of the most shocking examples in the protracted internal conflict tearing the African nation apart. Armed soldiers stormed the facility, allegedly slaughtering more than 460 patients and their companions.

Rights organizations have labeled it “a crime beyond words,” and a stark illustration of the collapse in safety for civilians living amidst warfare in several nations at war.

An Unprecedented Assault Against Maternal Care

While all major powers have signed the Geneva conventions, which require them to safeguard civilians, the past year has witnessed an unprecedented spike of attacks on healthcare systems. Expectant mothers are exceptionally vulnerable due to their need for locally available medical care.

Data analysis and investigations reveal an shocking trend: nearly 300 incidents targeting or hindering places and people associated with childbirth over the last three years, including at least 119 targeted attacks against hospitals and delivery wards.

“This is not standard wartime hazards. They represent a deliberate strategy of violence against reproduction.”

The majority of these assaults have occurred in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan, where a vast number of women bearing children are confined.

Mothers have lost their lives, blocked from reaching help, or made to have their babies in perilous and unsafe environments. The data also indicates that at least 68 maternal health workers have been killed, 15 kidnapped, and 101 arrested—sometimes during medical procedures.

The Global Crisis for Mothers and Newborns

These figures likely represent a substantial underreporting, as they are limited to incidents documented publicly. In many conflict zones, communications are sparse.

Last year, analysis showed that 50% of women who died during pregnancy or childbirth were in a conflict area. This underscores a devastating pattern.

In addition to the loss of life, these attacks are destroying critical infrastructure for mothers and babies, creating a grave danger to community survival.

Conditions within Gaza

In Gaza, the devastating effect on reproductive health rights has been cited by a UN commission as a factor in genocide allegations.

Following truces, doctors report that women and children continue to die from a lack of proper treatment, owing to desperate lacks of medicine and equipment. Agencies have reported women having children by the roadside because hospitals were inaccessible.

“We’ve had rockets fired at the wards, operating rooms, and maternity wards,” explains the head of a major hospital’s gynecology department. A military spokesperson has rejected deliberately targeting maternity care or trying to alter birthrates.

The Crisis in Ukraine

Since early 2022, at least 80 childbirth centers have been damaged or destroyed in Ukraine. Journalism from conflict zones describe births occurring in shelters and extreme psychological pressure leading to problems during delivery.

“The attacks on us are intentional,” says the head of obstetrics at a repeatedly damaged hospital in Kherson. Russian authorities have denied deliberately targeting civilians.

“The reality is, every facility is now a potential target,” comments a medical director in Sumy. “Even if air defence intercepts a drone, the falling debris can strike a hospital.”

Accountability Evaporates

For the over half a billion females living near active conflicts, there are minimal protections and even fewer war crimes prosecutions for those attacking childbirth services.

This void of justice has created a “culture of impunity,” explains a human rights lawyer. “Attacks on reproductive healthcare, like forced pregnancy or forced sterilisation, may constitute acts of genocide by hindering reproduction.”

Additional Hotspots

In El Fasher, the area was isolated from humanitarian aid long before the hospital attack, with malnutrition increasing drastically, especially among children and pregnant women.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, information is restricted due to a communication blackout from rebel-held areas. Nevertheless, shelling in Goma struck a baby care unit, resulting in tragic loss of life.

In Myanmar, hospitals have come under fire and dozens of midwives and patients have suffered violence over the past two years of civil war.

The End of Safe Deliveries

A large proportion of mother 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 devoid of emergency care.

“The deliberate attack on maternity wards points toward a larger and alarming strategy: the use of violence against hospitals as a weapon to spread fear and to destroy community bonds,” says a legal researcher.

“Safeguards are not guaranteed for hospitals in war. Under the Geneva conventions, medical facilities are not inviolable if used for acts deemed ‘harmful to the enemy’, which has often been cited as an excuse.”