“I had no choice but to deliver my own baby”: Health workers in Gaza city describe impossible conditions

Yasmeen used to work in the maternity and neonatal department of Al-Shifa Hospital, but after the facility suffered extensive damage from continued Israeli attacks it is no longer able to provide maternal health services. These have been transferred to Al-Helou Maternity Hospital, where UNFPA is providing reproductive health kits, medicine and postpartum supplies. 

“My little children were crying in terror as I was suffering in front of them,” said Yasmeen. “I didn’t know what would happen to me in the next few minutes.” 

Only 15 health facilities in Gaza are currently able to provide obstetric and newborn care, four of which are in Gaza city, and all are overwhelmed with patients and shortages of beds and critical supplies. Medicine, sanitary items, surgical equipment and health workers are all running out as few places have been spared the onslaught.

Every week in Gaza at least 15 women deliver babies outside a health facility, without a skilled birth attendant, risking the lives of both mother and newborn – as was now the case for Yasmeen. She recalled, “I grabbed his head and body and felt all the sounds stop; I could only hear my baby's voice and my own.” 

After delivering him safely, she quickly cut her baby’s umbilical cord, dressed him, and started breastfeeding. 

An unprecedented crisis 

Yasmeen said she has seen multiple cases of pregnant women suffering devastating injuries. One woman had a leg and a hand amputated, and soon after lost her pregnancy from the blood loss.

“I had nothing to say to that mother to support her psychologically, after everything she had lost,” she said. “But I gathered my strength and dealt with the situation as her primary supporter.”

UNFPA estimates that there are 55,000 pregnant women currently trapped in a cycle of displacement, bombardment, severe hunger and malnutrition, with nowhere to seek medical help. Approximately 130 babies are born every day across Gaza, more than a quarter of whom are delivered by Caesarean section. Around one in five newborns are born prematurely or suffer from low birth weight and other complications.

At the Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza city, Dr. Ahmed, director of the Paediatric and Maternal Health Department, said, “The situation is catastrophic. Our paediatric emergency ward now receives more than 1,000 children every day, which is ten times the normal caseload. At the same time, 200 newborns are currently admitted to intensive care, despite us only having capacity for 40.”

He said up to three babies often share a single incubator. “In the past 24 hours alone, 13 children have died here, including 10 stillbirths and 3 premature babies who died in incubators.” 

“We are also running critically low on IV fluids, antibiotics, disinfectants, sterilizers and other essential medical supplies.”

Premature births, miscarriages and stillbirths are rising among pregnant women and new mothers in Gaza, as they are weakened by extreme hunger – in many cases famine – severe malnutrition, exhaustion and the constant fear caused by displacement and bombardment. 

“Their deteriorating health left them unable to carry their pregnancies to term,” explained the doctor.

Mothers and babies killed in childbirth

Midwife Sahar described how a friend went into labour at seven months pregnant while trapped in Gaza city’s besieged Zeitoun neighbourhood. “I didn't have any tools to use during the delivery. I didn't even have gloves,” she told UNFPA. 

“I used a knife, heated over a fire, to cut the baby's umbilical cord, and scented tissues as bandages.”

UNFPA currently has more than over 125 trained and equipped midwives deployed to health facilities and among communities to support reproductive health and assist with emergency deliveries. But since January 2025, the World Health Organisation has recorded over 175 attacks on healthcare facilities in the Gaza Strip, and more than 100 health workers have been killed in 2025 alone. 

Sahar herself narrowly avoided being targeted by drones when trying to assist another woman in labour. “I couldn’t get close because they were shooting at anyone who moved. I stood at a distance, shouting instructions, asking bystanders to tell the mother to breathe,” she said.

The newborn didn’t get the same chance. “When I finally arrived, the baby’s head had come out, his skin was blue. I tried to resuscitate him, but he needed an incubator, which was impossible to find.”

Delivering amid adversity

Sahar described one of her most challenging deliveries as one she assisted without access to enough supplies. “The patient suffered severe postpartum haemorrhage. There was no blood available, no way to transfer her, and no doctor could come. We couldn’t stop the bleeding and she died, leaving behind her newborn.”

UNFPA remains on the ground in Gaza city and plans to expand services in the south to meet the growing demand from forced evacuations. Together with partners, UNFPA has opened a field maternity hospital in Nusierat near the town of Deir al-Balah and a health centre at Al Rashid reception area. 

Limited supplies have recently been granted entry and are being distributed, but the needs are staggering. And if the remaining health facilities in Gaza city are forced to shut down, the health system will lose more than half of its total bed capacity for maternal and newborn care.