Yemen: One maternity hospital for half a million people

Integrated maternal health care

In July 2024, MSF integrated our maternity services into Mokha General Hospital. This has allowed us to expand our services by opening a new comprehensive obstetric and neonatal care ward. Today, the maternity ward has 28 beds for delivery and post-delivery, including beds for neonatal and intensive care. Before this move, MSF was providing maternal care out of a field hospital that was initially set up in Mokha in 2022.

“We are the only 24/7 maternity and pediatric ward in the entire west coast area, which covers a little more than half a million people,” says Ann Van Haver, MSF midwife activity manager.

A remote location and ongoing conflict put mothers at risk

Yemen’s west coast is a rural area with front lines to the north and east. Women with high-risk or complicated pregnancies sometimes make a three-hour drive to reach the hospital in Mokha. An expected 15 percent of the deliveries will have obstetrical complications, which, if not treated in a timely manner, could be fatal.

The risks and complications faced by women in the area are easily preventable, but without consistent and accessible prenatal and postnatal care, pregnancy becomes more dangerous. The health care centers in the region are ill-equipped, untrained, and scarce to begin with. So women are left with no choice but to travel long distances on bad roads.

“There are so many challenges for mothers in Yemen, and most of them are linked to the war, making access to the few left health centers too complicated,” says Altaf Al Wahidi, a 28-year-old midwife at the MSF maternity. “That’s why the location of this maternity ward is so crucial, we cover a large area of the west coast.”

Quick health care access is lifesaving

The complications that women experience can be dealt with by the hospital and its staff, if patients arrive on time. However, Van Haver insists that a closer-to-home first line care should be available. Given the west coast’s population, about 1,300 women are expected to give birth each month.

“Around 250 are delivering with us now,” says Van Haver. “So there are 1,000 other deliveries every month somewhere else, [often] not in health facilities. And because of that, we see a lot more complications requiring invasive treatments.”

There are many factors working against a woman’s ability to reach a hospital on the west coast: continued displacement due to the conflict, many checkpoints along roads, dire economic conditions, and the need to get formal consent from a male family member for any medical care, including a cesarean section. This leaves expectant mothers with little choice but to deliver in unsafe settings, risking their and their baby’s lives.

Help after home births

Sixteen-year-old Fatema* went to the hospital as soon as she thought her labor started, but it wasn’t progressing. She returned home a few hours later, only to suddenly go into labor and deliver with the help of her mother.

“The delivery went well, and the baby is fine, but I experienced some bleeding afterward,” says Fatema. “In the morning, I returned to the hospital, where I received proper medical care to stop the bleeding. I am happy and relieved that the pain is gone and that I will be discharged soon to meet my baby.”

Back in the post-delivery room, a health educator, Bashira Seqek, visits Negah to give her information about drug safety, the benefits of breastfeeding, and family planning.

In the corridor, Negah’s husband Ali Abdallah Ali holds their one-day-old son with pride in his eyes. Non-medical male staff aren’t allowed in the maternity ward.

“Since the maternity ward opened here in Mokha, everything is available, and I am grateful for that,” says Ali. “I feel 100-percent confident about the services provided. In my village, we all know we have to come here for matters related to maternal care.”

MSF in Yemen

MSF supports hospitals and other health facilities across 13 governorates in Yemen, focusing on maternal and child health, specialist and emergency care, and response to malnutrition and outbreaks of preventable diseases such as cholera, diphtheria, and measles.

Since moving our services to Mokha General Hospital, more than 1,600 women have safely delivered in our ward.

*Name has been changed.