At the Liverpool Palestine Rally on Sunday 28th January 2024,  Dr Rebecca Smyth a midwife and academic spoke about the situation in Gaza for pregnant women and babies.

“I’m a retired Midwife, I’ve never worked in Palestine, but I’ve been watching and I want to tell how life in Gaza is for pregnant women & newborns.

So the death toll is now 25,000.

We know this is underestimated.

So what are the conditions like for the women and their newborns?

They are inhumane.

There are NO fully functioning hospitals providing maternity care left in Gaza.

Most hospitals have been completely destroyed/obliterated/demolished/flattened to the ground / gone.

The few hospitals that have survived are completely overcrowded. Many women labouring and birthing on the floor, floors that haven’t been able to be washed for weeks on end, because as well as staff shortages, shortages of life-saving medicines, pain relief, equipment, fuel, drinking water and food, there is also no clean water for washing. As a result, births are taking place in unhygienic conditions and therefore the risk of infection is escalating, in fact, it’s predicted more lives will be lost through infectious diseases than bombing and shooting alone.

So pregnant women only go to the hospital when they think things are really wrong. Women are having to walk miles and miles only to birth alone on the way. Substantial numbers of women are haemorrhaging after the birth of their baby. With severe haemorrhage in minutes you can lose a mother. Blood transfusions and IV fluids are needed quickly. But there aren’t any. Not now in Gaza. So if a woman does make it to hospital, the only treatment might be a hysterectomy to save her life. Remember most surgery is done under headlights. There is no electricity at all.

But this is the Israeli’s plan, isn’t it? Make sure Palestinian women can’t bear any children.

Remember the definition of genocide includes: “imposing measures intended to prevent births within a group”.

But these unborn children are the future of Palestine, the future of all of us here now. They are our children. When you cry ‘In our thousands, in our millions, we are all Palestinians’ think of these children. Think of these children who didn’t ever get the life that is theirs. Never to exist. There are no words. It’s beyond belief.

I’m sure you will have seen the countless reports of women undergoing caesarean sections without anaesthetic. That pain is unimaginable, isn’t it?

In Gaza 2.3 million face starvation.

If you starve a pregnant mother, you starve her baby. There’s a 30% increase in premature birth, this is because women are experiencing constant stress associated with Israel’s murderous actions. Babies are born growth-restricted, it is what it sounds. These babies are born so underweight they aren’t strong enough for life. Rates for miscarriage, stillbirth and neonatal deaths are escalating every day.

I want now to tell you a little about Al-Awda Hospital. It’s the only hospital with a maternity department in Northern Gaza, it’s just about functioning. I’ve chosen this hospital as Liverpool Friends of Palestine (LFoP) is to start a fundraiser. It’s not started yet, there will be a GoFundMe page. It’s to buy medical supplies, such as ambulances (they’ve all been destroyed), so once this nightmare is over, we can help rebuild Palestine. We’ll keep you all posted about fundraising events.

Let me say a little about Al-Awda Hospital, it’s just like every other hospital in Gaza by the way.

For more than 20 days in December the hospital was put under closed siege, no one was able to enter or leave the hospital, it was surrounded by snipers. All services were stopped as 170 people were trapped inside – staff, patients, and their relatives. They fought to survive on increasingly dwindling food and water supplies. Dr Adnan Radi, head of the Department, said that six healthcare workers died in the final days of the siege, while pregnant women in labour were murdered while attempting to access the hospital. The Manager of the Hospital, Dr Ahmed Muhanna – was arrested and taken away, he is still being held as a hostage, his whereabouts unknown. Remember it’s happening at every hospital.

On 21st November 2023, there was an Israeli airstrike on the hospital, tragically Dr Mahmoud Abu Nujaila was killed along with two other doctors and human rights defenders. Just a month before he wrote on a whiteboard, normally used for planning surgeries, the following:

“Whoever stays until the end will tell the story. We did what we could. Remember us.”

May Dr Mahmoud Abu Nujaila and the many other thousands, Rest in Peace.

You can see more about the conditions for pregnant women in Gaza in this United Nations video.

A recent news report can be seen here

For all the mothers and babies ceasefire now.!