30. Sahar,H., Laura, W. Women in labour and midwives during Israeli assault on Gaza Strip: between bullets and labour pains.2010.The Lancet,

This study report the personal accounts of childbirth experiences and coping skills of women and midwives during the 23 days of the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip, occupied Palestinian territory, in December, 2008, and January, 2009. the snowballing method is used to identify participants, and gathered data during telephone interviews in Arabic between Feb 17 and March 22, 2009, with women who had given birth and midwives who assisted births during Dec 27, 2008, and Jan 18, 2009. Study findings Seven of 11 women (all multiparas) gave birth in hospitals. Some of the complications included puerperal sepsis, severe back and neck pain from anaesthesia, hypothermia in the newborn baby, and eclamptic fits. Women felt trapped for fear of death from bombs falling on them or their families in the home, street, or hospital; and from childbirth if a birth attendant was not available or emergency care was not attainable. Midwives expressed their fear of assisting women giving birth under duress, and their lack of preparedness—material and psychological—to attend births outside hospitals.