Born vulnerable: the toll of maternal malnutrition and stress in Gaza

This is a summary of what was said by UNICEF Communication Manager Tess Ingram – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today's press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

THE GAZA STRIP, 9 December 2025 - "As you know, at least 165 children are reported to have died painful, preventable deaths related to malnutrition during the war. But far less reported has been the scale of malnutrition among pregnant and breastfeeding women, and the devastating domino effect that has had on thousands of newborns.

"The pattern is clear – malnourished mothers, giving birth to underweight or premature babies, who die in Gaza’s neonatal intensive care units or survive, only to face malnutrition themselves or potential lifelong medical complications. 

"Let me track back to 2022 in Gaza, before the horrors of the last two years, when an average of 250 babies per month – 5 per cent – were born with what doctors call low birth weight or weighing less than 2.5 kilograms at birth. This is according to the local Ministry of Health.

"In the first half of 2025, even with fewer births, more babies were underweight; 10 per cent of all births or about 300 babies per month.

"In the three months before the ceasefire, from July to September, this surged to an average of 460 babies every month, or 15 a day, almost double the pre-war average.

"In Gaza’s hospitals, I met several newborns who weighed less than 1 kilogram, their tiny chests heaving with the effort of staying alive.

"Low birth weight infants are about 20 times more likely to die than infants of normal weight. They need special care, which many of the hospitals in Gaza have struggled to provide due to the destruction of the health system, the death and displacement of staff, and impediments by Israeli authorities that prevented some essential medical supplies from entering the Strip.

"Data shows the number of babies who died on their first day of life increased 75 per cent – from an average of 27 babies per month in 2022 to 47 babies per month between July and September 2025. Not all of this can be traced back to preterm or low birth weight, but alongside rising congenital abnormalities, doctors tell me it is a common story.

"Low birth weight is generally caused by poor maternal nutrition, increased maternal stress, and limited antenatal care. In Gaza, we witness all three, and the response is not moving fast enough nor at the scale required. 

"Between July and September, about 38 per cent of the pregnant women screened by UNICEF and partners were diagnosed with acute malnutrition.

"And even now, we continue treating them in high numbers. In October alone, we admitted 8,300 pregnant and breastfeeding women for treatment for acute malnutrition – about 270 a day – in a place where there was no discernible malnutrition among this group before October 2023.

"This pattern is a grave warning and will likely result in low birth weight babies being born in Gaza for months to come.

"Two weeks ago, I met Fatma as she was visiting her baby Mohammed in a Gaza City neonatal intensive care unit. Mohammed was born premature and weighing only 1.5 kilograms. Fatma told me that unlike her first pregnancy, when she had access to antenatal checkups, vitamins and nutritious food, “this pregnancy has been full of displacement, lack of food, malnutrition, war and fear.” She said she was malnourished for three months of the pregnancy, displaced three times, and her young daughter and husband were killed, two months apart, by airstrikes.

"I have spent many months in Gaza over the past two years, and I see and hear the generational impacts of the conflict on mothers and their infants almost every day; in hospitals, nutrition clinics and family tents. It is less visible than blood or injury, but it is ubiquitous. It is everywhere.

"I have lost count of the number of parents like Fatma who have sobbed while telling me what happened to them, wrecked by how powerless they are to protect their children in the face of indiscriminate destruction and deprivation. Generations of families, including those born into the ceasefire, have been forever altered by what was inflicted upon them.

"UNICEF is responding. We are replacing the incubators, ventilators and other lifesaving equipment destroyed – UNICEF delivered 10 ventilators to Gaza in late September, and following the ceasefire, another 20 incubators, 20 ventilators and 15 patient monitors, among other equipment. Since the ceasefire, we have provided supplements, including micronutrient supplements, to over 45,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women to prevent malnutrition. We have screened over 150,000 under 5 years for acute malnutrition and enrolled over 14,00 in treatment. We are providing breastfeeding counseling for over 14,000 caregivers, as well as mental health and psychosocial support.

"We are doing everything in our power to support families. But, to improve the response, more aid must enter the Gaza Strip, especially aid that strengthens the health of pregnant and breastfeeding women and equips hospitals with everything they need to save lives. This must be supplemented by commercial goods that restock local markets with enough nutritious foods, so the prices continue to fall.

"And the fear must end. This ceasefire should offer families safety, not more loss. More than 70 children have been killed in the eight weeks since the ceasefire began. The ongoing attacks and the killing of children must stop immediately.

"This domino effect – from mother to child – should have been prevented. No child should be scarred by war before they have taken their first breath. But in Gaza, this brutal reality was caused by the conflict and exacerbated by the aid restrictions, which depleted hospitals and starved and stressed mothers. So much suffering could have been prevented, if international humanitarian law had been respected."