Pregnancy and childbirth is growing

A new life begins among the deadly war. But newborn children and those still in the womb are some of the worst tough conditions.

With a sharp lack of food, the UN says that each of the 10 new children is inadequate or premature. There is also an increase in miscarriages, dead and congenital abnormalities.

At the Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis, Milk Breeze, now seven months of pregnancy, is afraid of Israeli explosions and evacuation orders, and losing the baby.

“I was scared that I could have premature birth at any time, and that my amnotic fluid is not enough to grow,” she says BBC.

Milk did not expect to conceive his second child. Six weeks ago, she lost a lot of amniotic fluid, exposing the baby in danger.

“Doctors told me it was because of the malnutrition and exhaustion … They told me that it was in the hands of God – the fruit could survive or die.”

While poor nutrition causes new dangers during pregnancy, childbirth has also become much risky.

The common blockade of Israel on Gaza, imposed on March 2, was, he said, was putting pressure on Hamas – it was partially lightweight. There are not enough basic medical materials, including painkillers and basic hygiene products.

Sometimes Israeli hostilities and displacement mean that women give birth to tents or shelters without medical care.

“When the mother was lucky enough to come to the hospital to deliver her children, women who give birth to vagina, usually send home in three -four hours,” says Sandra Kilen, an American registered extraordinary and children’s nurse who recently worked at the Hospital in Gaza.

“Women who had surgical sections (caesarean) are discharged after 24 hours,” she said.

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

“Most babies, abroad, born less than 32 weeks, up to 1400 g (3.1 pounds), they would be in NICU (neonatal resuscitation). These babies go home. There is simply no place for them.”

The Nasser Hospital still has an intensive care unit and it is complete. Doctors say A deadly Israeli bombing on May 13 and get out of use.

Israeli military has repeatedly attacked hospitals for almost 20 months of the war and stated that he was aimed at local leader Hamas Mohammed Sinwar, under the underground base under the European Hospital.

He accuses Hamas of ordinary hiding his fighters and infrastructure for the sick and wounded that the armed group denies.

With access to basic care is now very difficult, most of the fact that the UN, 55,000 pregnant women in gas, cannot get regular preliminary checks.

“The psychological state of women at the moment of childbirth is strange, let God help them,” says Dr. Ahmad al-Farah, head of pediatric and maternal care at the Nasser Hospital.

“They are fully aware that their unborn children are not subject to proper control, and they themselves did not receive proper nutrition, so they expect their children to suffer from low birth or other complications. This is the first problem.”

“The second is that after birth, they are deeply experienced as they can breastfeed or even a safe formula, especially with a constant lack of food. Both options are equally complicated.”

Wiping tears, Aya al-scaffolding looks at the photos of his daughter Gennon in a shelter in Gaza.

The baby was born during the ceasefire earlier this year, and initially she was in good health. But as the food became small, her mother fought for breastfeeding.

“After the intersections were closed, everything was closed to us,” says Ay. “There was no flour, no pure water, no food, like fruits and herbs that need to be healthy. When my condition deteriorated, the state of Jennon deteriorated even more.”

Jennon was diagnosed with malnutrition and dehydration and had digestive problems. Doctors were unable to find her a special formula she needed.

“I was torn by a thousand pieces to such an extent that I wanted to shout around the world, saying: ‘Save her daughter from death, save her! “,” recalls.

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

Gennon died last month – she was four months old.

Many mothers are fighting for breastfeeding because of their own well-being, but the organization based on Scotland, the Gaza baby nutrition alliance, trains local doctors to provide greater support.

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

“We absolutely recommend breastfeeding, even if the mother is malnourished, if they are not keenly malnourished,” she says.

“Quite often the mothers who have received the formula, they become dependent on it, their milk supply decreases, then they do not have access to the formula or they do not have clean water.”

Now, returning home to the United States, Sandra tells about some unpleasant cases she encountered in Han UNIS and at the Martyrs Martyrs in the Central city of Deir al-Bala.

For the first time, the mother visited the hospital before birth, but Israeli air strikes meant that she, as a result, delivered her child alone with her husband to the tent camp.

For five days, she had difficulties to make her newborn breastfeeding. When it was finally safe to go to the hospital, it was too late to save her baby.

Another woman and her infant survived the tank, which spent her home, but she had a shrapnel in her chest, some of which tore her milk. She needs expert recommendations on how to continue feeding.

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

The woman fainted when she ran away with her children and could not breastfeed for three days. In her case, fortunately, they managed to find a children’s formula.

“There is a story, about history, history,” Sandra says. “In general, we feel a huge, huge growth of despair, hopelessness and a suicidal idea.”

Big families are the norm in gas, but many women do not have the usual support from relatives and friends when they go through pregnancy and then fight the newborn.

As well as working in Gaza twice in the past year, Sandra gave advice remotely. It became close to the pharmacist, Yaman Arafa, during pregnancy with a high level of risk with twins.

“I gave birth to yesterday, Sandra, with a section and, thank God, and in my babies, in good condition and health,” says Joomana in the voice in English, which she sent with photos last August. She called her boy Aser and the girl Aidal.

But the joy for John and her family had to be terribly short -lived.

Three days later, her husband, Mohammed Abul-Kamasan, received birth certificates when he received the news that his wife, their newborns and his mother-in-law were killed in an Israeli missile stroke in Deir al-Bala.

Journalists at the Martyrs Hospital filmed Mohammed when he fell apart in the yard.

At the time, the Israeli military said they did not know about the incident, adding that it was aimed at “only military purposes”, taking measures to minimize the damage to civilians.

For Sandra, the death of Yomana, her mother and new babies was “devastating outside the devastating, soulful outside of the wonderful.” “I still think about it, and I run out,” she says.

In gas for most women, pregnancy and childbirth once had an impatient expectation and excitement, but now they have increased stress and fear.

Instead of presenting hope for a new life, babies came to embody the struggle for survival.