In Taiz city, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) supports Al Jamhouri hospital, where pregnant people come from inside the city and the surrounding rural areas to receive care.
Throughout this region of Yemen, there is a lack of prenatal and postnatal care, as well as high-risk delivery services and equipment. Patients in rural areas undergo a long and difficult journey through mountainous areas and destroyed roads to reach Al Jamhouri hospital, making it especially challenging to arrive in time for a safe delivery.
MSF began supporting the hospital in 2021, running the maternal and neonatal services and providing additional support to the ministry of health staff. Over one year, the rate of newborn deaths dropped from roughly 24 percent to 10 percent. MSF teams also supported more than 17,000 prenatal consultations and 3,000 postnatal consultations during the same period. Some of the patients were receiving their first prenatal consultations in the eighth or ninth month of pregnancy.
