Like most other women and girls in her village, 17-year-old Fatima* had no access to prenatal care during her pregnancy. She recently gave birth to her second child in the Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) clinic in Al Qanawis, in northwestern Yemen’s Hodeidah governorate, becoming one of the nearly 200 people that MSF assisted during childbirth in March.
For six years Yemen has been gripped by conflict that has decimated the country’s economy and crippled its health system, leading to spiraling fuel and food costs and putting medical care out of reach for many. "Life has become very difficult because of the war," said Fatima. "I had heard about MSF—that the care is good and free of charge. We can’t afford the private hospitals."
It cost Fatima and her husband a week’s salary to pay for transport to the MSF clinic. She arrived with a fever, and when her baby was born the girl was admitted to the neonatology ward with an infection. She developed jaundice and was treated with light therapy.
The number of women seeking help at the Al Qanawis clinic has been rising steadily since it opened in late December 2020. There is a clear need for the services that MSF provides, but women are often unable to stay for the full period of monitoring and treatment.
Fatima, like so many others, wanted to leave the hospital early. While this went against the advice of the doctors, she explained that her 18-month-old son was waiting for her and was discharged with a course of antibiotics to continue treatment at home.
