Giving Birth in The Middle Of A War

03-04-2022

Camilla Souza

Women’s Rights Researcher, 

Global Human Rights Defence.

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24, Ukraine has been experiencing a human rights, humanitarian and displacement crisis that does not seem to be coming to an end. Russian attacks are indiscriminately targeting residential areas, hospitals, and schools, resulting in deaths and injuries among the civilian population. According to UNHCR estimates, close to four million people could leave their homes in the coming weeks if the conflict continues.

In this regard, UN Security Council Resolution 1325 has already stated that "civilians, and particularly women and children, constitute the vast majority of those who are harmed by armed conflict, including as refugees and internally displaced persons, and increasingly come under attack by combatants and other armed elements".

However, the specific conditions of each group must be considered and, about women in the context of war, the situation of pregnant women is often overlooked. In the Spanish digital newspaper "Público", it is stated that, in Ukraine, at any time of the year, about 330,000 women are pregnant, so it is estimated that, in the next three months, 80,000 will give birth. 

The same newspaper has conducted an interview with Jaime Nadal, a Spanish UNFPA worker, who states:

"Our job is to ensure that in this type of circumstances they have access to adequate services and what we are seeing is that they are having deliveries in subhuman conditions, without any kind of qualified or medical accompaniment or minimum sanitation conditions in subway stations, in basements of buildings or in shelters enabled."

Likewise, Nadal highlights the increase in the number of miscarriages due to the stressful situation in which these women are living, stressing that "normally in conflicts, human casualties caused by attacks are counted, but people who lose their lives in other circumstances, such as these pregnant women, in a completely absurd and unnecessary way because of the war, are rarely counted. This is one more dimension of this conflict that goes unnoticed and needs to be made visible".

Sources and Further Reading:

Jorge Yusta Valverde (Público): Jaime Nadal: "Las mujeres embarazadas ucranianas están teniendo partos en condiciones infrahumanas" < https://www.publico.es/internacional/guerra-rusia-ucrania-jaime-nadal-mujeres-embarazadas-ucranianas-teniendo-partos-condiciones-infrahumanas.html >

UNFPA: In her words Air raid sirens, a baby’s first cry. Giving birth during conflict in Ukraine < https://www.unfpa.org/news/her-words-air-raid-sirens-babys-first-cry-giving-birth-during-conflict-ukraine >