Women's Health

Women’s health needs in crisis

The first patient I was called in to see was a woman who had been shot in the stomach and chest while she was six months pregnant. We were very afraid for her because a piece of bullet was lodged in her uterus. Unfortunately, the baby died, but she was able to survive.

Clémence Chbat, Midwife and women’s health advisor, in Adré, June 2023

Every woman in the different phases of her life has important, specific health needs. Yet in too many places, women and girls face a lack of care, delays in accessing care, or poor quality care, causing preventable suffering, illness and often premature death.

To address this, MSF focuses on providing respectful and tailored healthcare that upholds women’s autonomy and increases their timely access to care in whatever context we work in.

In 2023, women’s health needs during crises were highlighted by the conflict in Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo. Hundreds of thousands of people were trapped or displaced internally, or across borders. People struggled to obtain adequate food, safe drinking water, maintain basic sanitation, or find healthcare. For women and girls, this compromised their access to services such as contraception, maternity care and protection from sexually transmitted infections, and increasingly exposed them to sexual and intimate partner violence.

In Sudan, many maternity services stopped functioning regularly, leaving pregnant women who might require a blood transfusion, a caesarean section or other emergency services to deliver their babies in unsafe conditions. MSF supported maternity teams to provide continued access to emergency obstetric, sexual violence care and safe abortion care in the capital, and opened a maternity service in North Darfur.

In neighbouring Chad, as the influx of people fleeing Sudan grew in June, so too did the number of pregnant and injured women and girls. In Adré town, MSF established a comprehensive emergency obstetric and newborn care centre, and trained midwives to help expand care in the existing health centres as well as at a community level. This allowed us to provide our full suite of safe sexual and reproductive health services.

In DRC, MSF continued to be alarmed by unprecedented numbers of survivors of sexual violence, almost all women, seeking care, in displaced persons’ camps in Goma. Many described being attacked while searching for food or firewood to survive. MSF opened dedicated clinics to provide medical care and psychosocial support to survivors. Training and working with health promoters and community health volunteers was pivotal in linking survivors to care.