GLOBAL, FRIDAY 3 MAY 2024 – Nearly one in five children (17.9%) born this year will enter the world without a doctor, midwife or nurse present, putting them and their mothers in danger, as conflict and climate change place critical maternal health services out of reach, Save the Children saidi. 

New analysis by the child rights organisation also found that more than a fifth of births (22.2%) will take place outside a health facility [1], with this figure rising to nearly half in conflict zones. The briefing, Silent Emergency: Women Dying, to Give Life estimates that 24 million mothers will give birth without a doctor, midwife or nurse, and 28 million will give birth outside a health facility. 

A rise in conflict, climate-related disasters and humanitarian emergencies as well as the looming threat of pushback against reproductive health and human rights are putting the brakes on progress towards a world where childbirth is no longer a deadly threat for millions of women, Save the Children said.  

Somalia is grappling with the devastating impact of the climate crisis and is one of the world’s 10 worst conflict-affected countries for children. Across the country, only 31.9% of women give birth with a doctor, midwife or nurse present - the lowest rate of skilled birth attendance in the world.  

Rahma*, 32, recently gave birth in the Beledweyne hospital, supported by Save the Children and the Damal Caafimaad Project [2]. She said her previous home births were traumatic. She said: “When I gave birth to my last child at home, it was tough. I couldn't find a professional nurse and I had a lot of bleeding. It was a dangerous situation - I almost died.”