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Pregnant women in Yemen are at risk due to a lack of emergency obstetric treatment

Pregnant women in Yemen face severe risks due to limited access to emergency obstetric treatment. UNFPA's efforts to provide reproductive healthcare are hindered by a lack of funds, leading to a reduction in humanitarian efforts. Only a fraction of the necessary funds has been secured so far. With minimal operational health facilities and a scarcity of maternal and newborn healthcare options, the situation is dire. The need for reproductive health support, including prenatal care, safe child delivery, and emergency obstetrics, is critical for the 8.1 million women and girls in Yemen.

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UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) is Yemen's primary provider of women's healthcare and reproductive medicine and the leading supplier of reproductive healthcare. However, due to a lack of funds, it has had to reduce humanitarian efforts by 25% since the beginning of the year. (So far, only 13% of a USD 100 million campaign has been financed.)

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With support from 127 healthcare facilities and reimbursements to 2,065 health professionals, UNFPA served 1.6 million women and girls with reproductive healthcare in 2021, facilitating 151,000 safe births and avoiding 344,000 unwanted pregnancies.

However, UNFPA has had to refocus its efforts, and it now supports 98 health institutions and four reproductive health mobile teams, thanks to funds from Canada, the EU, the Netherlands, the Yemen Humanitarian Fund, and others.

Only 50% of Yemen's health facilities, such as hospitals, are still operational, and only one out of every five of them offers maternal and newborn health care. 19 of the nation's 22 governorates only have six maternity units and beds per 10,000 inhabitants, which is 50% of what the WHO (World Health Organization) considers to be adequate. 

Furthermore, 42.4% of its population stays more than an hour away from the closest fully or partly operational public health centre. Every 2 hours, one Yemeni woman dies during childbirth from circumstances that are virtually completely preventable.

A projected 8.1 million women & girls of reproductive age seek support in receiving reproductive health care such as prenatal care, safe child delivery, postnatal care, emergency obstetrics, family planning, and neonatal care. 1.3 million women will give birth in 2022, with 195,000 of them expected to experience problems that would necessitate life-saving medical care and healthcare assistance.

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