Solar-powered births in Sudan
Midwives making strides in the crisis-hit country
All photos and footage © UNFPA Sudan
13 October 2023
Midwives in Sudan are on a mission: to ensure that every childbirth is safe.
The odds are stacked against them. As conflict continues to rage, displacing millions and rendering up to 80 percent of hospitals in affected areas inoperable, Sudan is a dangerous place to be pregnant.
With fighting concentrated around the capital city of Khartoum and the Darfur region, 4.42 million people have fled to other areas of the country. More than 1.2 million more have sought safety in neighbouring countries.
UNFPA and partners are supporting overwhelmed hospitals and medical teams to meet the needs of displaced women and girls, including 105,753 pregnant women. Supplies, trained personnel and safe spaces, as well as solar power, are part of the response in this conflict, which jeopardizes the health and lives of women and girls each day. UNFPA-supported midwives are at the heart of the effort, making sure each woman matters.
Ikhlas and her baby at a shelter in Mandani. She fled Khartoum while five months pregnant.
Health visitor Awatef Othman Hassan offers aid to displaced women.
“I lost everything in the war. I did not want to lose my unborn child too.” – Omnia* fled Kahrtoum while nine months pregnant. Her baby, Lana, was delivered by Caesarean section
At El Girba Maternity Hospital, around 70 babies are born each month.
A midwife holds a newborn she delivered safely.
Solar panels create backup energy during power shortages.
A pregnant midwife receives an ultrasound.
A preterm baby in Port Sudan’s UNFPA-supported hospital.
“Our team is fully dedicated to supporting the women and girls arriving from Khartoum, but we are in urgent need of more supplies, including fuel and life-saving equipment and medicine.” – Dr. Randa Osman, general director, Port Sudan Training Hospital
Health visitor Awatef takes the blood pressure of a pregnant woman.
A young mother, displaced by conflict, receives postnatal support.
Newborn baby Lana is delivered by Caesarean section in Port Sudan.
The solar-powered hospital in El Girba is equipped to deal with preterm babies.
A prenatal check by health visitor Awatef reassures a woman that everything seems well.
Awatef visits around 25 displaced women per day.
Community information sessions are held so women and girls know how to access support.
With up to 80 percent of Sudan's hospitals in conflict-affected areas inoperable and 4.4 million people displaced across the country, midwives are working in a constant state of emergency.
Awatef at a clinic in Mandani.
Newborns at Saudi Maternity Hospital, Kassala State.
*Name changed for privacy.