By Olivia Le Poidevin
GENEVA, Nov 3 (Reuters) – Fighting and access restrictions in and around the Yemeni city of Taiz have left more than 13,000 pregnant women without essential healthcare and are leading to more miscarriages, the United Nations Population Fund said on Tuesday.
Taiz has been largely isolated for a month, with fighting preventing humanitarian supplies from entering and civilians from leaving, following an escalation in clashes between the Saudi-backed government and the Iran-aligned Houthi movement.
Key supply routes, including the Taiz-Aden corridor, have been blocked by Houthi forces, exacerbating shortages of water, food and fuel. The city hosts about half of the 300,000 people displaced across Yemen by the latest fighting, according to the UN.
Yemen already has the highest maternal mortality rate in the Arab region, with an estimated three women dying each day from complications during childbirth before conflict resumed there this summer, UNFPA’s Yemen representative Francesco Galtieri told reporters.
PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL STRESS
Recently, midwives supported by UNFPA have reported a rise in miscarriages and unsafe deliveries, particularly in and around Taiz city.
UNFPA expects about 1,500 obstetric emergencies among 6,400 displaced pregnant women because of the physical and psychological stress women are bearing from conflict and mass displacement.
Only 5 of 27 designated emergency maternal and neonatal health facilities in and around Taiz are still partially functioning, while essential healthcare services have been cut off for about 147,000 women and girls of childbearing age, Galtieri said.
“No woman should have to risk her life simply because she is giving birth to a new life in a war zone,” he said.
FOOD SHORTAGES
At Taiz’s main maternal care facility, the Yemeni-Swedish Motherhood and Childhood Hospital, daily deliveries of babies have fallen to around 5 from 10 before the fighting, Galtieri said.
Most incubators at the hospital are out of use due to fuel shortages, and Galtieri said insecurity, shelling and high fuel prices were preventing many women and medical staff from travelling there.
“Unless access restrictions are lifted in the coming days, the hospital itself could close,” Galtieri said.
More than 800,000 people have been cut off from food assistance in Taiz and surrounding areas since early October, according to the UN World Food Programme.
Galtieri said pregnant women were surviving on little more than tea, bread or rice.
(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
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