“It Surpassed Tragedy”: The Horrors of Being Pregnant and Giving Birth in Gaza

RAFAH, GAZA — Yasmine Joudeh thought she was going into labor. It was December 22, two-and-a-half months into Israel’s war on Gaza, and she found herself venturing to a hospital against a backdrop of intense Israeli air and artillery bombardment. It was unlike anything she had experienced with her five previous pregnancies.

When she got to Al-Awda Hospital in the northwestern part of the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, she found an “indescribable” scene, she said.

“It surpassed tragedy. The area was under attack, with planes targeting homes and residential buildings nearby,” Joudeh recounted in an interview with The Intercept. “The hospital was receiving a constant stream of victims from the Israeli bombings – martyrs and wounded alike. I felt an overwhelming sense of terror. My heart nearly stopped from fear.”

Joudeh’s labor pains turned out to be a false alarm, and she returned home for another three weeks before her son, Arkan, was born. The horrors she endured seeking medical care during pregnancy — and since giving birth — are emblematic of the challenges facing new mothers in Gaza.

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The United Nations has estimated that there are more than 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza, and that an average of 180 of them give birth every day — in a health care system that is teetering on the edge of collapse. The dire situation is exacerbated by scarcities in both food and fuel, coupled with unsanitary living conditions and the relentless onslaught of Israeli bombings.

Dr. Haya Hijazi, an obstetrician and gynecologist at the Emirati hospital in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, said that prior to the current war, they would see roughly 100 to 150 pregnant women a day. That number now exceeds 500, thanks to the massive displacement from the northern part of the strip. “Given the deteriorating health conditions resulting from Israeli aggression and the limited availability of medical resources,” Hijazi said, “we are unable to provide the necessary health care for these pregnant women.”

That’s not to mention, Hijazi added, the women who have died or lost their babies while “giving birth in tents, shelter centers, or even on the streets and in cars.”

Yasmine Joudeh and her children.

Joudeh had just entered her seventh month of pregnancy when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, sparking a merciless, retaliatory war by Israel on residents of the Gaza Strip. “I never imagined that the Israeli aggression would persist until I gave birth,” she said.

The war immediately impeded her access to prenatal care. Due to constant Israeli bombings and a fuel shortage that made transportation difficult, Joudeh found it impossible to keep seeing her doctor, who, as a Russian citizen, was able to leave Gaza early in the war. Joudeh, who has a bachelor’s degree in medical analysis and nutrition, was forced to become her own health care provider. She monitored her blood pressure at home and ensured a steady supply of vitamins and calcium from the pharmacy.

She lived in a state of fear that impacted not only her mental health, but also the well-being of the baby growing inside of her. In late November, during a temporary truce in fighting between Israel and Hamas, she noticed a difference. “When the psychological tension eased, and the sounds of bombing ceased, I observed a notable increase in the baby’s activity,” she said.

Like the overwhelming majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, Joudeh and her family were displaced from their home. After the Israel Defense Forces ordered residents of parts of Nuseirat to evacuate in late December, they left to her parent’s house in the city of Deir al-Balah. “It was one of the worst days of my life,” she said. “I only took essentials with me, forced to leave the home where my husband, children, and I lived for 17 years, a place filled with our memories.”

That same day, her labor pains sent her to Al-Awda Hospital. Even after learning she was not yet in labor, Joudeh spent the night there with her mother. They didn’t have a way to get home at night and waited anxiously until morning. She vividly recalls what she saw there. “Burned corpses, dismembered body parts, mothers wailing intensely upon losing their children to Israeli bombings. … The usual signs of childbirth and labor were overshadowed by the sheer intensity of terror.”

Yasmine Joudeh’s son Arkan was born in mid-January.

Three weeks later, once again experiencing labor pains, Joudeh went to a private clinic with her mom. Gaza was experiencing a communications blackout at the time — Israeli bombings have periodically disrupted internet and phone service in the strip throughout the war — and she couldn’t get in touch with her husband, Muhammad, who was in Nuseirat. “This significantly impacted my mental state,” she said. “I needed Muhammad by my side during this challenging time.”

The clinic was overwhelmed. There were multiple women in labor, and only one doctor to care for them. After Arkan was born, the doctor urged Joudeh to return home to make room for other patients. She wasn’t able to do postnatal testing, let alone rest. And her son has yet to be seen by a doctor for basics like height and weight measurements and to check his bowel movements. Even if she could get to a hospital, Joudeh said, she worries about getting an infection “due to the overcrowded conditions of the displaced population and the shortage of sterilization materials and cleaning supplies.”

Palestinians wait in long queues in front of bakeries for hours in order to buy bread which is available in limited amounts in Deir Al Balah, Gaza, on Jan. 30, 2024.

The war continues to take a mental toll. Joudeh said the stress has made it difficult for her to consistently breastfeed her son. At the same time, she’s also struggled to find formula to supplement with, or even to get right-sized diapers for her son.

Hijazi, the OB-GYN, said that “continuous Israeli bombings and the extremely challenging circumstances surrounding childbirth in Gaza have led to severe postpartum depression among women.” That includes a lack of access to necessities, as Joudeh is experiencing, as well as harsh living conditions, particularly for people sheltering in tents out in the cold.

As Gaza faces a dire food crisis, likely to worsen as the United States and other Western countries pause funding for the U.N.’s relief agency, Joudeh is suffering from a lack of sustenance. “After giving birth, I need proper nutrition, but food scarcity prevails,” she said. “My worsening mental state barely allows me the desire to eat.”