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, at the onset of the horrific violence. Some had just delivered their newborns, while others were in the midst of labor.

Working that night, a 28-year-old lab technician, a technician named Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, became one of the few known survivors. “The sounds of screaming reached me of women and children,” he explains. “They were killing everyone inside the hospital. We who were able to escape, did so.”

This horrifying event stands as one of the most shocking examples in the ongoing war tearing the African nation apart. Militiamen raided the hospital, allegedly slaughtering more than 460 patients and their companions.

Rights organizations have labeled it “an act of unspeakable brutality,” and a prime example of the collapse in safety for civilians caught in conflict zones in multiple global hotspots.

An Unprecedented Assault On Childbirth Services

Although world powers have signed the international laws of war, which commit them to defending civilians, the past year has witnessed an unprecedented spike of assaults against medical infrastructure. Women undergoing childbirth are particularly at risk due to their need for locally available medical care.

Data analysis and investigations uncover an shocking trend: nearly 300 violent acts against places and people associated with childbirth over the last three years, including at least 119 direct strikes on hospitals and delivery wards.

“This is not inevitable outcomes of conflict. They represent a systematic assault on childbirth.”

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

Women have been killed, denied medical attention, or compelled to deliver in dangerous and unsanitary conditions. The data also indicates that at least 68 childbirth professionals and specialists have been slain, 15 abducted, and 101 detained—sometimes while assisting births.

The Global Crisis in Maternal Health

Statistics are thought to be a significant underestimate, as they only include incidents covered by the media. In many conflict zones, reporting is limited.

Last year, it was reported that one in two mothers who lost their lives in maternal circumstances resided in a war zone. This underscores a devastating pattern.

Beyond killing women and staff, these attacks are obliterating critical infrastructure for mothers and babies, creating a grave danger to societal repopulation and recovery.

Conditions within Gaza

In Gaza, the devastating effect on reproductive health rights has been cited by a UN commission as part of the basis for genocide allegations.

Even after ceasefires, doctors report that women and children continue to die from a lack of proper treatment, owing to critical shortages of medicine and equipment. Accounts describe women having children by the roadside because hospitals were inaccessible.

“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 aiming to influence birthrates.

The Crisis in Ukraine

Since early 2022, at least 80 childbirth centers have been damaged or destroyed in Ukraine. Accounts from embattled medical centers describe births forced underground and extreme psychological pressure leading to maternal health issues.

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

“In fact, every facility is now a potential target,” notes a medical director in Sumy. “Even if air defence intercepts a drone, the falling debris could impact a hospital.”

Accountability Evaporates

For the over half a billion females living near active conflicts, there are few safeguards and rare trials for atrocities for those attacking childbirth services.

This void of justice has led to a “atmosphere of lawlessness,” argues a human rights lawyer. “Attacks on reproductive healthcare, like forced pregnancy or forced sterilisation, can be understood as acts of genocide by hindering reproduction.”

Other Conflict Zones

In El Fasher, the area was isolated from 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 communication blackout from rebel-held areas. Nevertheless, shelling in Goma damaged a maternity hospital, killing mothers, babies, and nurses.

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

The Collapse of Safe Childbirth

The majority of childbirth fatalities are preventable with routine care, 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 without skilled assistance.

“If maternity hospitals are being deliberately targeted indicates a larger and alarming strategy: the use of attacks on medical facilities as a weapon to spread fear and to tear apart the social fabric,” observes a legal researcher.

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