Help Pregnant Moms Give Birth Safely in Disasters

Giving birth is becoming dramatically less safe. 

In Yemen, Aisha was pregnant but did not access prenatal care. She was afraid of leaving the house – afraid of the violence that engrosses the country. 

And afraid of the virus.

“We kept hearing on the television about a new virus called corona that is killing people in many countries.” 

Aisha was also pregnant with triplets. 

You can help new moms like Aisha get the care they need. Just $15 provides three women with emergency birth kits, so they can safely deliver their babies during crises. 

Aisha made a decision that many mothers in Yemen make. She decided to give birth at home. 

“My mother kept shouting that there were two umbilical cords hanging and I was losing blood.” 

Her uncle lived nearby and rushed her to a UNFPA-supported hospital. “It was like a miracle,” she said, after giving birth to three healthy babies. 

A contribution of $100 supplies five midwives with the items they need to help moms like Aisha give birth. 

With health care systems at risk of collapsing, UNFPA is urgently supplying lifesaving medical equipment to help frontline health workers save mothers and babies. 

More than 800 mothers die every day due to causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. This will worsen during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Can you help ensure that the world's most vulnerable receive the care they need during these uncertain times? Your gift of $25 provides one woman with the hygiene essentials she needs to take care of herself and her baby for the first six months. 

Links:

• Motherhood During Coronavirus

Razia, from Pakistan, was only 13 years old when her family married her off. She quickly became pregnant, though tragically, her husband died when she was six months along. 

Razia, like many young mothers, had a birth complications. She was in labor for four days before her daughter was stillborn and she developed an obstetric fistula. Razia did not have the lifesaving skills of a midwife with her when she gave birth.

$400 equips a midwife and a maternity ward with enough supplies to help 50 women like Razia safely deliver their babies. 

Fistula is a birth injury in which a long or obstructed labor causes a tear in the birth canal, leading to the mother leaking feces or urine. It often causes infections and social isolation. Fistula is also overwhelmingly a problem faced by the most disadvantaged women- impoverished, young, or malnourished. 

"People would either avoid me or just make fun of me," Razia said. "I never felt clean."

Thankfully, Razia was able to obtain treatment for her fistula and go on to live a healthy life, including getting remarried and having her own child!

Now, she works with UNFPA to bring treatment to other women suffering from fistula. 

You can join Razia and prevent women from ever needing fistula surgery to begin with. 

$15 provides three mothers with emergency birth kits, which provide all of the materials necessary to give birth during a crisis.

Links:

• UNFPA's work ending obstetric fistula

The day that Lena gave birth to her seventh child began just like any other day. Her husband was out grazing their livestock in the grasslands of Kenya and her children went to bed at their normal time.

Then, chaos erupted. Bandits from a neighboring village had set fire to most of the homes in Lena's community and were shooting at those who fled. The assainlants' goal was to take livestock and other valuables to suvive through a drought that had been affecting the region. 

Lena escaped to the bush surrounding her home - alone except for a neighbor woman who had keep struck by a stray bullet. Her six children had run in different directions. That was when Lena went into labor. 

Luckily, Lena had a UNFPA emergency birth kit with her. She and her neighbor laid out a plastic sheet and Lena gave birth to her son, safely. 

You can support women like Lena! $5 provides one emergency birth kit to a pregnant woman in crisis. 

Everyday, more than 500 women in humanitarian settings die from preventable pregnancy and childbirth complications. 

Some of these women were alone or in labor for days before they died. Others may have passed away in front of loved ones who were lacked the basic tools to save her life. 

$400 provides one clinic with enough funds for midwives and supplies to help 50 women delivery healthy babies. 

UNFPA works to provide lifesaving care to women and girls all over the world. 

Links:

• Read about other mothers who have used emergency birth kits!

Aisha was 8-months pregnant when she was shot in her abdomen while fleeing violence in Syria.

For three days, Aisha walked through the desert wounded, without feeling any fetal movement. She had already lost two children to violence in Syria and couldn't bear to lose her unborn child. When she arrived at a refugee camp in Jordan, a UNFPA doctor quickly gave her an ultrasound.

They discovered that Aisha's baby was miraculously unhurt!

She was transferred to a UNFPA maternity clinic where she recovered from her gunshot wound and awaited her delivery, knowing care was there when she needed it. 

Even in crises, women do not stop becoming pregnant, giving birth, or needing care. UNFPA is there for them. 

UNFPA provides life-saving supplies to ensure clean deliveries and offers skilled midwifery care, so that mothers like Aisha and their newborns can have the safe birth that is their right. 

You can help support UNFPA trained midwives continue their lifesaving work by donating today!

UNFPA’s work in Jordan has made it possible for over 10,000 babies to be born in the Za’atari Camp for Syrian refugees with ZERO maternal deaths. 

UNFPA's clean birthing kits can make the difference between life and death for a pregnant woman and her baby. 

For as little as $15 you can help deliver 3 emergency clean birthing kits into the hands of pregnant mothers and health care workers in crisis situations. The kits include a bar of soap, clear plastic sheet, razor blade, cloth and latex gloves. 

Thank you for standing with refugees -and moms- like Aisha. 

Links:

• Help Provide Safe Birth Even in Disaster

In Mozambique, Tina was nine-months pregnant when her home began to flood from Cyclone Idai. She and her four children ran through the storm to safety in a nearby school. Soon after, Tina felt contractions begin and knew that she was going into labor. 

The winds and flooding from the cyclone made it impossible for an ambulance to reach her at the school. Instead, a motorcycle taxi rushed her through the floodwaters to the Matundo Health Center, where she safely delivered her baby girl, Joana. 

At Matundo, Tina received a dignity kit from UNFPA to help her care for herself and for her baby. Dignity kits contain items like clean underwear, soap, laundry detergent, a safety whistle, and a flashlight.  

For only $15, you can empower one woman with a dignity kit, helping her feel clean and in control, even in times of crisis. 

Cyclone Idai struck Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe in March 2019. The storm lasted just over two weeks, but the devastation will take much longer to recover from—torrential rains have caused intense flooding, infrastructure has been damaged beyond recognition. Fields, the main source of income for these agricultural communities, have been destroyed, and over 2 million people have been displaced or otherwise impacted.  

Women have been hit especially hard by Cyclone Idai and face unique obstacles in the aftermath of the storm. Nearly 500,000 women have been affected, including 75,000 pregnant women who have been left without access to reproductive healthcare.  

One in ten of those women could face life-threatening complications for themselves and their babies.  

UNFPA is supporting nineteen mobile clinics in hard-to-reach areas of Mozambique. These clinics have enough health kits to reach more than 300,000 people.  

$50 makes it possible for UNFPA to give ten women clean delivery kits. These kits have a plastic sheet, gloves, a razor, and a blanket to prevent infection during childbirth.  

Tina says, “It would be good if these were made available not only in times of crisis but in good times as well. Being clean and taking care of oneself is important for women and even more so for a newborn baby.” 

You can empower women. You can make the world safer for mothers and babies. You can help UNFPA change a life.

Links:

• Help pregnant women struck by Cyclone Idai