Pregnancy and birth increasing risk in Israeli blockade and bombing

Against the backdrop of a deadly war in Gaza, new lives began. But newborn babies and those still in the womb are among the richest strokes of harsh conditions.

With acute food shortages, the UN says one in 10 new babies is overweight or premature. There is also an increase in spontaneous abortions, stillborn and congenital abnormalities.

In the hospital Nasser in the southern town of Khan Enisnis, Malak Brace, now pregnant at seven months, is afraid of Israeli bombing and evacuation orders and loses her baby.

“I’m scared that I could have a premature birth at any time and that my amniotic fluid is not enough for the baby to grow,” she told the BBC.

Malak did not expect to think of her second child. Six weeks ago, she lost a lot of amniotic fluid, exposing her baby in danger.

“The doctors told me that it was due to malnutrition and exhaustion … I was told it was in the hands of God – the fruit could survive or die.”

While poor nutrition causes new hazards in pregnancy, the birth has also become far more risky.

Israel’s total blockade of Gaza, imposed on March 2 – which she believes is to put on Hamas – was only partially relieved two weeks ago. There are no basic medical supplies, including painkillers and basic hygiene products.

Sometimes Israeli hostilities and displacement mean that women give birth in their tents or shelters without medical attention.

“If mothers are lucky enough to come to hospitals to deliver their babies, women who give birth to vaginally are usually sent home to four hours after that,” says Sandra Kylan, an American emergency nurse and a pediatric nurse who recently worked at the Gaza hospital.

“Women who have had surgical sections (caesariums) are written after 24 hours,” she said.

“They are thrown to their homes quite often with babies who have conditions and various problems that, under normal circumstances, we would stay in the hospital to get more support.

“Most babies, outside the gas, born under 32 weeks, under 1400 g (3.1 pounds), they will be in Nicu (neo-lower intensive treatment ward). These babies are sent to home. There is simply no room for them.”

Nasser’s hospital still has a working neo-medical department for intensive treatment and is complete. Doctors say they were buried by patients from a nearby European hospital was directed at a Deadly Israeli bombing on May 13 And it is released.

The Israeli military has repeatedly attacked hospitals during nearly 20 months of war and claim to be aimed at the local Hamas leader Mohammed Sinuar, at an underground base under the Union of the European Hospital.

He accuses Hamas of routinely hiding his fighters and infrastructure behind the sick and wounded, something that the armed group denies.

With access to basic health care, which are now very difficult, most of what the UN appreciates are 55,000 pregnant women in gas, are not able to obtain regular prenatal checks.

“The psychological state of women at the point of birth is heartbreaking, God to help them,” says Dr. Ahmad al-Farah, Head of Pediatric and Maternal Care at Nasar Hospital.

“They are fully aware that their unborn babies are not properly observed and they have not received adequate nutrition themselves, so they expect their babies to suffer from low birth weight or other complications. This is the first anxiety.”

“The second is that after birth, they are deeply worried about how they will be able to breastfeed or even provide a formula, especially with the ongoing lack of food. Both options are equally difficult.”

Wrying tears, Aya Al-Scafi looks at pictures of his daughter Jenan in a shelter in Gaza.

The baby was born during the termination of the fire earlier this year and was originally in good health. But as the food became scarce, her mother struggles to breastfeed.

“After the crossings were closed, everything was closed to us,” Aya says. “There was no flour, no clean water, no food like fruits and greenery, which you need to be healthy. When my condition worsens, Jenan’s condition worsens even more.”

Jenan was diagnosed with malnutrition and dehydration and had digestive problems. Doctors could not find her the special formula she needed.

“I was torn in a thousand pieces to the extent I wanted to scream in the whole world, saying,” Save my daughter from death, save her! “” Remember Aya.

“I asked for help, but only God, the lord of the world answered. Only God saved her from the cruelty of this world.”

Jenan died last month – she was four months old.

Many mothers are struggling to breastfeed because of their own poor health, but the Scotland -based organization, the Gaza Baby Eating Alliance, trains local medics.

Nurse Sandra Kylan, who is also a lactation specialist, works with them.

“We absolutely recommend breastfeeding, even when mothers are malnourished, unless they are acute malnourished,” she says.

“Quite often mothers to whom a formula is given, they become dependent on it.

Now at home in the United States, Sandra tells some disturbing cases she has encountered in Khan Einnis and at the Martyrs Hospital in Al-Aksa in the central city of Deir al-Balah.

The mother had visited the hospital for the first time before she gave birth, but Israeli air strikes meant that she eventually delivered her baby with her husband to the camp of their tent.

For five days, she had difficulty making her newborn breastfeed. When it was finally safe to travel to the hospital, it was too late to save your baby.

Another woman and her infant survived in tank firing near her home, but she had a shrapnel in her chest, part of which cut off her milk canal. She needed expert advice on how to continue to eat.

The mother of four reacted well to help eating her premature newborn, but then her tent was bombed. Her husband was killed and a few hours later, they received an Israeli military evacuation order.

The woman fell until she escaped with her children and failed to breastfeed for three days. In her case, fortunately, they were able to find a baby formula.

“There is a story in history,” Sandra says. “In general, we have a huge, huge increase in despair, hopelessness and suicidal idea.”

Big families are a norm in gas, but in the displaced folk camps, many women do not have the usual support from relatives and friends as they go through their pregnancy and then the fight against newborns.

In addition to working at Gaza twice in the last year, Sandra has given women remotely. She became close to pharmacist Yomana Arafa, during her high -risk pregnancy with twins.

“Yesterday I gave birth, Sandra with a C-section and, thank goodness, my babies and I are in good condition and health,” says Yomana in a voice message in English, which she sent with photos last August. She had baptized her baby Asher and the girl Aisal.

But Yoman’s joy and her family had to be terribly short -lived.

Three days later, her husband, Mohammed Abul-Kamasan, received evidence of the birth of babies when he received news that his wife, their newborns and his mother-in-law had been killed in an Israeli missile strike at their shelter in Deir Al Balah.

Journalists at the Martyr Hospital Al-Aksa filmed Mohammed as he collapsed in the yard.

At the time when Israeli military said there was no knowledge of the incident, adding that he was aimed at “only military goals”, taking steps to minimize the harm of civilians.

For Sandra, Yoman’s death, her mother and new babies were “devastating beyond the devastating, heartbreaking beyond the heartbreaking.” “I still think about it and I sob,” she says.

In Gaza, for most women, pregnancy and birth were once a time of impatient expectation and excitement, but now they are times of increased stress and fear.

Instead of being the hope of a new life, babies embody the struggle for survival.