Tahani Yassin was in her third trimester of pregnancy when she decided to return to her hometown Beirut to give birth to her child.
Living in Equatorial Guinea with her husband and three young children, she had greater confidence in the Lebanese healthcare system.
But within a few days of reaching Beirut, Yassin began to regret his decision. Israel stepped up its military campaign in Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah strongholds in the south, the Bekaa Valley in the east and the southern suburbs of Beirut, closer to his home.
Although his territory was not directly attacked, the attacks were extremely close, and the loud noise of Israeli warplanes breaking the sound barrier filled him with fear.
Concerned for the safety of her unborn child, the 36-year-old woman moved to an apartment closer to the hospital where she was scheduled to deliver.
“My doctors told me I was very far along in my pregnancy and I couldn’t travel. I had no other option but to stay here and deliver,” she told Reuters just hours after giving birth at Trade Hospital in central Beirut on October 10. There was no option.”
Lying in her hospital bed, with her newborn baby girl next to her in a cradle, Yassine expressed relief that both she and her baby are healthy – a very different experience for many expectant mothers in the growing conflict in Lebanon.
Nicolas Baklini, an obstetrician and gynecologist in Beirut, says he has seen an increase in premature births and fetal deaths since hostilities began last year.
“The thing that has increased the most, and the thing that was shocking to me, is the number of deaths of babies in the womb,” said Bakalini, 61, who owns a private clinic and works with several in Beirut. , who died in his mother’s womb.” hospital.
“There are many malformations, and surprisingly, many colleagues have seen the same thing. When… at one year, two fetuses die in your uterus, and then suddenly, at two months, around 15, it “Indicates that something is wrong,” he added.
Mothers run away from their homes
According to a flash appeal published by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in October, there are approximately 11,600 pregnant women living in Lebanon, about 4,000 of whom are expected to deliver in the next three months.
Many of them are displaced and lack adequate shelter, nutrition and sanitation. Access to safe prenatal, postnatal and pediatric care is becoming increasingly difficult.
According to the Lebanese government, the Israeli campaign has forced approximately 1.2 million people from their homes since the war intensified in late September.
The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah militants began a year ago when the Iran-backed group began launching rockets at northern Israel in support of Hamas at the start of the Gaza war.
Baklini, dressed in white scrubs, caresses the tiny feet of a baby girl in an incubator in the neonatal intensive care unit of Trade Hospital. A mother who gave birth prematurely to her baby and his twin brother was forced to evacuate her home in south Beirut due to Israeli air strikes.
He believed that the mother’s early contractions were partly caused by the stress of the bombing and escape.
He said all ICU beds were occupied, which was due to the intense bombardment.
“It’s not panic that prompts you to give birth,” Baklini said, as machines monitoring premature babies beeped in the background. “It is the action of running, falling and experiencing trauma to the abdomen that triggers contractions, leading to preterm labor.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
