Yemeni official: 500 Deaths Per 100,000 Live Births during the Past Year

The Director General of Reproductive Health at the Ministry of Public Health and Population, Dr. Zainab Al-Badawi, revealed today, Saturday, that Yemen is witnessing a record rise in the number of deaths among mothers and newborns, reaching nearly 500 deaths per 100,000 live births.

Al-Badawi explained that the lack of medicines, the destruction of medical facilities by the aggression and its cutting off of oil derivatives were the most important reasons for the high death rate among pregnant women and newborns.

For her part, the Director-General of the Seventy Hospital for Maternity and Childhood, Dr. Magda Al-Khatib, told Al Masirah TV that the hospital is facing a significant shortfall in providing medicines for pregnant women and newborns, and the various maternity and childhood hospitals suffer from this problem.

Al-Khatib indicated that the hospital is forced to purchase some vital pharmaceutical items as many as the fingers of a hand due to their scarcity of presence in the local market and the lack of drug supply stores in the Ministry of Health.

She noted that the nurseries at Al-Sabeen Hospital do not remain empty for one hour due to the high turnout and the small number of nurseries in Yemen.She noted that many families of patients pass through many maternity and childhood hospitals to be able to find an intensive care bed for pregnant women.