Help Pregnant Moms Give Birth Safely in Disasters

WHITE NILE STATE, Sudan — In the heart of Sudan’s White Nile State, Kosti Maternity Hospital stands as a beacon of hope. This vital facility—supported by UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency—is the main referral point for the region and a lifeline not only for the local community but also for more than a quarter million internally displaced people across the state. The hospital manages an average of 15 childbirths every day and thousands of deliveries annually.

Midwife Fatma has witnessed the changing landscape of healthcare as crisis has taken hold. ©UNFPA Sudan

Midwife Fatma has been a pillar of Kosti Maternity Hospital since 1974 and has witnessed the ebb and flow of life—and the changing landscape of health care—over five decades.

“Nowadays, natural childbirths are fewer than cesarean sections,” she observed, noting a shift in obstetric practices.

More recently, she has seen a surge in patients affected by the country’s insecurity. Many of her clients have been displaced by war, and she has also seen women struggle with the economic fallout of the conflict.

“Some women come without money. We pay out of our pockets to help them with childbirth costs,” Fatma said. Her hope is that the hospital can receive more support for supplies and resources to help women access necessary tests and treatment.

The care Fatma provides has made an enormous difference.

“I am happy about the services provided here and the care from the midwives,” said Faj, a 25-year-old mother of five from Tawila.

All of her children have been born at Kosti Maternity Hospital, which safely managed each of her deliveries—including one involving serious complications. “My biggest problem was the bleeding, but thanks to the medical care at the hospital, they helped me,” she said.

A gift of $400 can equip a midwife and maternity ward with the medicines and supplies they need to support 50 women through safe deliveries—even in the most challenging humanitarian settings.

Faj has been assisted through all of her five deliveries at Kosti Maternity Hospital. ©UNFPA Sudan

As Sudan’s war—now in its third year—grinds on, the challenges facing the health system are immense. Increased demand due to the influx of families fleeing conflict, persistent electricity outages during critical surgeries like cesarean sections, and severe shortages of equipment and supplies threaten to unravel an already fragile system.

UNFPA has stepped in to support the hospital with essential medical equipment, including an anesthesia machine, incubators, oxygen concentrators, and an ultrasound unit. These supplies have strengthened the hospital’s capacity to provide lifesaving maternal and newborn care, reduce delays in emergency surgeries, and save the lives of babies born prematurely.

UNFPA’s installation of a solar power system has also provided a much-needed alternative energy source, helping keep essential services running during frequent blackouts. Still, the hospital relies on fuel-powered generators to bridge the gap—underscoring the urgent need for long-term investment in stronger infrastructure and reliable power.

With a contribution of $150, you can help provide supplies, medications, and equipment to clinics like Kosti Maternity Hospital so health workers can safely manage obstetric emergencies.

Solar power has helped provide critical electricity during too-frequent power outages. ©UNFPA Sudan

The consequences of Sudan’s war have been devastating. Tens of thousands of people are reportedly dead. Hundreds of thousands face famine. Nearly 7.5 million people who have fled their homes since April 2023 remain displaced.

The country’s infrastructure—including its health system—has been decimated. Hospitals and clinics are overwhelmed by the sheer number of families fleeing violence, and many facilities are struggling to function amid shortages of power, personnel, and essential medical supplies.

Between January and August 2025, UNFPA and its partners reached more than 586,000 people in Sudan with essential services, including maternal and emergency obstetric care. But the scale of need far outpaces available resources.

Every dollar makes a direct impact on the health and safety of women and newborns in Sudan. For $50, you can provide 10 Emergency Birth Kits to women like Faj—simple, lifesaving tools that can allow a safe delivery even when access to a hospital is impossible. 

Healthcare services continue at the Al-Awda Health and Community Association, which is attached to the hospital in Gaza’s Deir Al Balah. ©UNFPA Palestine/Media Clinic

GAZA STRIP, Occupied Palestinian Territory – “There’s a severe shortage of food and essential medicines, especially during this siege,” said a doctor at Al-Awda Hospital in Gaza. “It’s had a devastating impact on pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and children in general.”

The doctor spoke to UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, following more than two months of Israel’s devastating aid blockade on Gaza, which cut off all supplies—including food, medicine, shelter, and fuel. Reports show that one in five people is now facing starvation. For an estimated 55,000 pregnant women, each missed meal increases the risk of miscarriage, stillbirth, and delivering undernourished newborns.

“We’re seeing a significant rise in low birth weight babies, directly tied to maternal malnutrition and anemia during pregnancy,” the doctor added, requesting anonymity for safety reasons.

Aya, currently living in the Deir Al-Balah displacement camp, said, “We’re surviving on food provided by community kitchens. Clinics hand out nutritional supplements to pregnant women, and I go to checkups every day because I’m scared I’ll develop vitamin deficiencies. It’s a very difficult situation.”

With almost no access to clean water or hygiene supplies, infectious and sexually transmitted diseases are reportedly on the rise—including among pregnant women, who are especially vulnerable to complications.

For $25, you can provide a woman with hygiene essentials for six months, enabling her to maintain her dignity in disaster or emergency settings.

“The lack of hygiene products is a major factor in these conditions,” the doctor said. “We’re also critically low on medical supplies, including a complete lack of maternal health medications, which has caused a rise in miscarriages.”

Relentless attacks on hospitals, health facilities and medical staff have left Gaza’s healthcare system in ruins. ©UNFPA Palestine/Media Clinic

A health system on the brink

Relentless attacks on hospitals, health facilities and medical staff have left the healthcare system in ruins. Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza – one of only eight hospitals still partially functioning – was hit by an Israeli airstrike on May 13, the fourth time it has come under fire since October 2023. Less than 24 hours later, the European Hospital in Khan Younis was bombed too.

Access to essential services is critically constrained while supplies for safe deliveries and newborn care are stuck at the border. Amid these dire conditions, almost 11,000 pregnant women are already reported to be at risk of famine, and nearly 17,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women will need urgent treatment for acute malnutrition over the coming months. For many, the fallout is devastating. 

For $100, you could provide 20 Emergency Birth Kits to pregnant women. Each kit has the power to save not just one life, but two. 

“I treated a woman who had struggled with infertility for nearly seven years,” continued the doctor at Al-Awda Hospital. “She finally became pregnant during the war, but due to the impacts of the siege, a lack of proper nutrition, and the trauma of bombardment when she was forced to flee, she went into premature labour and lost her baby.”

UNFPA estimates that one in three pregnancies in Gaza are now considered high-risk, and one in five newborns are born preterm or underweight, requiring specialist care that is increasingly unavailable. Only five hospitals are still providing maternity care across the entire Gaza Strip.

Displaced woman and her family members seeking healthcare. ©UNFPA Palestine/Media Clinic

A spiralling humanitarian catastrophe

UNFPA has over 190 trucks loaded with supplies that are urgently needed in Gaza, but which have been denied entry at the border during the blockade. These include mobile maternity units, ultrasounds and portable incubators that are crucial for premature newborns, hygiene and shelter supplies, and maternal health medicines, including those essential for managing obstetric emergencies.

At a maternity unit set up in a container by UNFPA, 38-year-old Wafa told UNFPA, “This is my seventh child. I became pregnant with him in March 2024, during the war. The beginning of my pregnancy was extremely difficult due to malnutrition.”

A contribution of $400 could equip midwives in Gaza with the supplies and medicines they need to guide 50 women through safe deliveries.

Displaced with her family, she explained, “I had to rely on IV fluids at Al-Awda Hospital and experienced preterm labour early in the eighth month. However, the medical team monitored my condition closely and provided consistent care, and I eventually gave birth at the hospital.”

In the first two months of the ceasefire, UNFPA estimates to have reached 146,000 women and girls with reproductive health services and  more than 100,000 people with protection services, through health facilities and mobile clinics. But as the blockade has rendered even the most essential humanitarian assistance all but impossible, the doctor at Al-Awda Hospital said, “Our deepest hope is for this war to end.”