{"id":134356,"date":"2024-10-07T07:45:10","date_gmt":"2024-10-07T04:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/news\/a-letter-from-a-mother-in-gaza-hardships-heartbreak-and-hope\/"},"modified":"2024-10-07T07:45:10","modified_gmt":"2024-10-07T04:45:10","slug":"a-letter-from-a-mother-in-gaza-hardships-heartbreak-and-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/news\/a-letter-from-a-mother-in-gaza-hardships-heartbreak-and-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"A letter from a mother in Gaza: Hardships, heartbreak and hope"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mp_wrapper\">\n  <div class=\"mepr-unauthorized-message\">\n    <p>You are unauthorized to view this page.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n  <div class=\"mepr-login-form-wrap\">\n            \n<div class=\"mp_wrapper mp_login_form\">\n                  <!-- mp-login-form-start -->     <form name=\"mepr_loginform\" id=\"mepr_loginform\" class=\"mepr-form\" action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/login-2\/\" method=\"post\">\n            <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_username\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n                              <label for=\"user_login\">Username<\/label>\n        <\/div>\n        <input type=\"text\" name=\"log\" id=\"user_login\" value=\"\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_password\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n          <label for=\"user_pass\">Password<\/label>\n          <div class=\"mp-hide-pw\">\n            <input type=\"password\" name=\"pwd\" id=\"user_pass\" value=\"\" \/>\n            <button type=\"button\" class=\"button mp-hide-pw hide-if-no-js\" data-toggle=\"0\" aria-label=\"Show password\">\n              <span class=\"dashicons dashicons-visibility\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n            <\/button>\n          <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n            <div>\n        <label><input name=\"rememberme\" type=\"checkbox\" id=\"rememberme\" value=\"forever\" \/> Remember Me<\/label>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n      <div class=\"submit\">\n        <input type=\"submit\" name=\"wp-submit\" id=\"wp-submit\" class=\"button-primary mepr-share-button \" value=\"Log In\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"redirect_to\" value=\"\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134356\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_process_login_form\" value=\"true\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_is_login_page\" value=\"false\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n    <\/form>\n    <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n    <div class=\"mepr-login-actions\">\n        <a\n          href=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/login-2\/?action=forgot_password\"\n          title=\"Click here to reset your password\"\n        >\n          Forgot Password        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n\n      \n    <!-- mp-login-form-end --> \n  <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"smart_content_wrapper\">\n<p>\u2018\u2018This story doesn\u2019t start from day one. It starts from nine months ago \u2013 the day I learned I was going to be a mother.\u201d That day was in November 2023, around a month into the war in Gaza. Ala\u2019a is among an estimated 155,000 pregnant women and new mothers in the Gaza Strip who for the past year have been forced to give birth under fire, in tents, while fleeing bombs and often without assistance, medication or even clean water.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe sound of the rockets and bombs was louder than my happiness, but I decided that with my little baby, we would overcome all difficulties,\u201d she wrote in a letter thanking the tireless health staff who helped her deliver her baby in a field hospital in Khan Younis. \u201cWe will survive whatever happens.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The situation for pregnant women in Gaza is catastrophic: Exhausted, weak from hunger, with health services nearly completely destroyed and none of the hospitals fully operational, they have few places to turn for care and treatment. After hundreds of attacks on medical facilities, just 17 out of 36 hospitals are even partially functioning.Fuel and supplies are also running dangerously short, health-care workers are being killed or forced to flee and those that remain are stretched thin at a time when Gaza\u2019s whole population is facing a surge in injuries, illnesses and diseases, including the first case of polio in over 25 years.<\/p>\n<p>More than 500,000 women in Gaza have lost access to vital services like pre- and postnatal care, family planning and treatment for infections. Among them, over 17,000 pregnant women are on the brink of famine. \u201cAfter seven months, I was forced to leave my home and live in a tent,\u201d Ala\u2019a continued in her letter. \u201cI cried a lot, feeling that my brave baby would never see the walls of his room that I had always dreamed of preparing for him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But, her anguish didn\u2019t end there, as she was soon evacuated yet again. \u201cIt was a cry from the depths of my heart [that I had] to give birth out of my home,\u201d wrote Ala\u2019a. \u201cAfter 50 days I fled under fire, running, screaming and crying because of the bombs. At that moment, I feared I might lose my baby.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some 1.9 million people are currently displaced in Gaza, many of whom have already been forced to move multiple times over the past year. Since the start of the war, miscarriages, obstetric complications, low birth weight and premature births are reported to have risen at alarming rates, mainly due to stress, malnutrition and a near-total lack of maternity care.<\/p>\n<p>Recalling her time escaping the bombardments, Ala\u2019a wrote, \u201cWe are here, starting from nothing \u2013 no shelter, no home, not even a destiny. We built a tent again, and we promised each other again that we must survive, whatever happens.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTwo weeks later I felt some pain\u2026It was labour pains! [I thought] \u2018No. It\u2019s too early, I want to give birth at home.\u2019\u201d After four days of labour, Ala\u2019a visited a field hospital in Khan Younis run by UK-Med, a humanitarian non-governmental organization (NGO) that has a specialised maternity unit supported by the United Kingdom and the UN agency for sexual and reproductive health, UNFPA.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI came for a check-up and everything was great,\u201d she continued. \u201cThe midwife and nurses were kind and warm. I spoke to Dr. Helen, and she encouraged me to come and give birth there.\u201d When the time came, they made sure Ala\u2019a delivered her baby safely. \u201cI went directly to the hospital at 2am and all the midwives were ready. But, they told me there was no way for a natural birth, it was too dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>UNFPA provides the hospital\u2019s maternity unit with reproductive health kits and supplies and ensures staff can offer comprehensive care, including for obstetric emergencies.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/news.un.org\/en\/story\/2024\/10\/1155391\">Read more&gt;&gt;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source: <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/news.un.org\/en\/story\/2024\/10\/1155391\">The UN<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/csr-news-en\/a-letter-from-a-mother-in-gaza-hardships-heartbreak-and-hope\/\">A letter from a mother in Gaza: Hardships, heartbreak and hope<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\">Vastuullisuusuutiset.fi<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[555,16384],"class_list":["post-134356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-csr-news-en","tag-mother-in-gaza"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134356\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}