Women give birth by the roadside as hostilities escalate in Yemen

TA'IZ GOVERNORATE, Yemen - "We saw bombs and drones falling near us - we were terrified. We couldn't sleep, and we couldn't stay inside the house," said Aziza Marzouk, a mother of four currently displaced from Al Mokha in Yemen's Ta'iz Governorate.

A rapid escalation of hostilities along Yemen's western coast has exacerbated an ongoing humanitarian crisis, causing mass displacement, casualties, and disrupted health and protection services.

"I took my daughters and went outside looking for a way to escape," Ms. Marzouk told UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, which is the UN's sexual and reproductive health agency. "We couldn't find a bus, a car or anything we could use to get away. Shells were falling from every direction."

The only transport she was able to find was a military pick-up truck. "The driver stopped and let us in. Everyone was running away - the scene was painful and terrifying."

Since 3 September over 145,000 people have been newly displaced in Yemen, with many families forced to move multiple times, even as key roads have become restricted or impassable.

"While we were fleeing, the vehicle came under fire," continued Ms. Marzouk. "I saw death in front of me. I felt that I was going to die, that there was no way I would survive."

Childbirth in a conflict zone

Already overstretched and severely underfunded reproductive health and protection services are buckling under the pressure of the latest escalation. Yemen has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the Arab region, with three women dying every day from preventable pregnancy complications and 6.2 million women and girls lacking basic protection from gender-based violence.

"I saw death in front of me. I felt there was no way I would survive" - Aziza Marzouk

Of the newly displaced, UNFPA estimates that almost 3,200 are pregnant women, at least 600 women will need emergency obstetric and newborn care for potential complications, and 360 are expected to give birth within the next two weeks.

Many women are struggling with a lack of available care and face dangerous delays in reaching health facilities. "When we were forced to flee, I was already close to giving birth," said Mariam*, 20. "We were trying to reach a site for displaced people, but I couldn't continue. The pain became too much and I gave birth on the road."

Maternal and newborn survival under threat

"There was no clinic nearby and no house where I could take shelter," explained Mariam. "Some women who were travelling with us gathered around me. They did everything they could to protect my privacy and help me deliver my baby."

When it began to rain heavily, the women used a curtain as a makeshift shelter, Mariam told UNFPA. Their clothes became wet, but they didn't leave me."

She delivered amid crossfire, without skilled care. "After my baby was born, we had nowhere to go. That night, we slept beneath a tree. We had no proper shelter, no food and no warm clothes."

"Early the next morning, a rocket landed near the place where we had spent the night. We were terrified and moved again, this time towards the mountains."

A UNFPA-coordinated rapid response team arrived to provide emergency assistance, but couldn't locate Mariam and her baby. By the time they were found sheltering in a cave, the newborn was trembling from the cold. They were provided with sanitary and hygiene items, food rations and blankets, before being referred to a UNFPA-supported women's and girls' safe space in Ta'iz city for postnatal and newborn care.

"The pain became too much and I gave birth on the road" - Mariam*

A race against time

"The scale of the crisis is visible in the faces of people seeking safety," said Saeed Saif, who coordinates UNFPA's response in Yemen's west coast. "Many were crying, overwhelmed by what they had endured and uncertain about what lay ahead."

"The displacement sites are severely overcrowded. Bombings and clashes can be heard nearby, reminding displaced families that even the place they sought shelter was unsafe."

UNFPA is leading coordination of reproductive health and gender-based violence protection services in conflict-affected areas. With support from the Governments of Iceland and Japan, the UN Central Emergency Response Fund, European Union Humanitarian Aid and the UNFPA Emergency Fund, community midwives have been deployed across Al Hudaydah and Ta'iz.

"Years of progress in women's health, safety, dignity and rights is being eroded before our eyes" - Francesco Galtieri

Maternal health medicines and supplies have also been delivered to areas receiving newly displaced people, intended to meet the needs of 120,000 pregnant women over the next six months.

For survivors of gender-based violence, UNFPA is providing virtual case management and psychosocial support in areas where safe spaces have closed due to insecurity. "Years of progress in women's health, safety, dignity and rights is being eroded before our eyes," said UNFPA Representative in Yemen, Francesco Galtieri. "For women and girls this is a race against time."

He continued: "Safe childbirth, reproductive health care and protection from violence are not optional in a crisis. They save lives."

Lack of funding is severely straining UNFPA's ability to respond at the scale required, and urgently need $22.7 million to sustain its humanitarian response across Yemen over the next three months, including to scale up operations in conflict-affected areas. The 2026 appeal of $71 million for UNFPA's humanitarian response in Yemen is only 20 per cent funded, leaving a critical gap as needs continue to rise.

*Names changed for privacy and protection