Stories & News

The war in Gaza has completely disrupted access to maternal healthcare, exposing both mothers and their children to serious and even life-threatening health risks. 

Little Mikaela is a spark of hope. For everyone in the MSF teams helping in east of Chad, but also to the refugees who know that their children can received free care when needed. 

Rachel Coyle, who works as the midwife supervisor at Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)'s Mother and Child Hospital (MCH) in Taiz Houban, southern Yemen, shares her experience in delivering twins while reflecting on the persistent challenges of Yemeni pregnant women and mothers as they strive to access essential maternal healthcare services.

Beset by the effects of climate change, the island nation of Kiribati now faces increasing child malnutrition and a shortage of specialists to treat them. Jacqui Thornton reports.

In Jahun, northern Nigeria, women and girls are admitted daily to the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF/Doctors Without Borders) maternity department intensive care unit with life-threatening complications in pregnancy or childbirth. Registered critical care nurse, Theophilus Tyonongu, has followed in his parents’ footsteps to bring his skills and compassion to the unit’s lifesaving work.   

Pregnant women from refugee communities in Malaysia have limited access to adequate maternal healthcare services, such as antenatal and postnatal care, skilled birth attendants, emergency obstetric care, and family planning services, leading to a high rate of maternal mortality. 

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is providing paediatric support on Kiribati as the remote Central Pacific nation finds itself without any specialist paediatricians, and one of the highest mortality rates in children under five globally.

‘These children don’t know anything different’: Meet the Geraldton woman running a hospital in war-torn Yemen.

Decades of instability and armed violence in Central African Republic (CAR) have contributed to essential medical care being out of reach for many pregnant women and newborn babies. Overshadowed by the security situation in the country, tackling this everyday emergency is a priority for MSF teams.  

In 2022, MSF teams around the world continued to respond to crises, old and new. While COVID-19 was not the emergency it was in previous years, new challenges arose. The war in Ukraine escalated in February; the political, humanitarian and economic crises in Haiti deteriorated severely; cholera emerged on an exceptional scale in several countries.