The Targeting of Childbirth: The Making of Women and Babies into Casualties in Worldwide Wars.

Thirty women had taken refuge in a childbirth facility in El Fasher, Sudan, as the slaughter began. 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, lived to tell the tale. “I heard the screams of women and children,” he explains. “They executed everybody inside the hospital. Survival meant running for your life.”

This horrifying event stands as among the worst examples in the protracted internal conflict tearing the African nation apart. Armed soldiers forced their way into the building, leaving dead more than 460 individuals receiving care and their families.

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

A Record of Violence On Childbirth Services

Although world powers have signed the international laws of war, which commit them to defending civilians, the past year has experienced a historic high of attacks on healthcare systems. Expectant mothers are particularly at risk due to their need for locally available medical care.

An investigation of records uncover an alarming level of violence: nearly 300 violent acts against 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 represent a systematic assault on childbirth.”

The majority of these attacks have taken place in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan, where a vast number of expectant mothers are stranded.

Mothers have lost their lives, prevented from accessing care, or forced to give birth in dangerous and unsanitary conditions. The data also indicates that at least 68 maternal health workers have been slain, 15 kidnapped, and 101 taken into custody—sometimes during medical procedures.

The Global Crisis in Maternal Health

Statistics are thought to be a substantial underreporting, as they capture solely incidents documented publicly. In many war-torn areas, communications are sparse.

Last year, findings indicated that 50% of women who lost their lives in maternal circumstances were in a conflict area. This underscores a devastating pattern.

Apart from fatalities, these attacks are wrecking maternal and neonatal care facilities, posing a long-term threat to community survival.

Conditions within Gaza

In Gaza, the catastrophic impact on the right to maternal care has been cited by a UN commission as part of the basis for accusations of genocidal acts.

Despite periods of calm, doctors report that women and children are still perishing from inadequate care, owing to desperate lacks of medicine and equipment. UN officials have relayed women having children by the roadside because hospitals were out of reach.

“Our facility has endured missile strikes fired at the wards, operating rooms, and maternity wards,” states the head of a major hospital’s gynecology department. A military spokesperson has denied 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. Journalism from conflict zones describe births occurring in shelters and extreme psychological pressure leading to problems during delivery.

“The attacks on us are intentional,” claims 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,” states 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 assaulting reproductive health.

This void of justice has created a “atmosphere of lawlessness,” says a human rights lawyer. “Assaults against maternal services, like forced pregnancy or forced sterilisation, can be understood as acts of genocide by preventing births.”

Additional Hotspots

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 lack of access from rebel-held areas. Nevertheless, shelling in Goma struck a baby care unit, causing fatalities among patients and staff.

In Myanmar, clinics have been attacked and dozens of midwives and patients have faced detention, death, or harm over the past two years of civil war.

The Collapse of Safe Childbirth

Most maternal deaths are preventable with routine care, but war destroys healthcare networks. Rights groups note that terror is compelling women away from facilities once considered safe, pushing them toward risky home births lacking professional help.

“The deliberate attack on maternity wards points toward a wider and more disturbing trend: the use of violence against hospitals as a weapon to spread fear and to destroy community bonds,” notes 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 ‘prejudicial to the opposing side’, which has increasingly been used as a justification.”