UNITED NATIONS, New York — A healthy baby girl was delivered safely by a midwife in a refugee camp in Jordan. Her mother, who is doing well despite her circumstances, was seven months pregnant when she had to cross the borders from Syria to escape violence in her homeland and find a safe place for her seven children. She is one of the 260,000 Syrian refugees who have fled to camps and villages in surrounding countries.
To raise awareness of the urgent needs of pregnant women in emergencies, UNFPA is launching a social media campaign called Safe Birth. Even Here. The campaign, which starts today, will run on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
As part of this campaign, UNFPA will report on safe deliveries from refugee camps and crises settings around the globe. Social media followers will then be able to spread the good news of a safe birth by sending a message of support to the family and midwives as well as donate a clean delivery kit.
This clean delivery kit is a key component of ensuring safer, healthier births in emergency situations and contributes to saving the lives of pregnant woman and their babies. The kit, costing only three dollars, provides the most basic essentials for preventing fatal infections. It includes a bar of soap, a clear plastic sheet to lie on, a razor blade for cutting the umbilical cord, a sterilized string to tie off the umbilical cord, a cloth to keep the mother and baby warm and latex gloves. Thousands of these are shipped by UNFPA every year as part of a rapid response in humanitarian crises. In Syria 12,000 kits have already been distributed to pregnant women across the country.
More than 287,000 women die each year – one every two minutes – from complications of pregnancy or childbirth. The risk of dying in childbirth increases enormously in disaster settings, where typically one in five women will be pregnant. These mothers and babies are cut off from health care, and are exposed to trauma, malnutrition, disease and violence - putting their lives in great danger. Yet their needs are often overlooked.
Find us on Twitter at #safebirth
Sample Tweets:
• Healthy baby girl born at 8:03 am. Mother is doing well despite the circumstances! http://bit.ly/PGhrzS #safebirth
• Share the good news of a safe birth in a Syrian refugee camp! http://bit.ly/PGhrzS #safebirth #syria
Sample Facebook post:
• Healthy baby girl born at 8:03 am. Mother is doing well! http://bit.ly/PGhrzS
For more information, please contact Alexandra Sicotte-Levesque:
sicotte-levesque@unfpa.org, +1-212-297-5077 or +1 646 309 6836
***
UNFPA, delivers a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.
