Fatema is a pregnant 19-year-old woman living in Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh — home to the world’s largest refugee camp and over 1 million Rohingya refugees.

During her pregnancy, she began suffering violent convulsions caused by hypertension, putting her life and the life of her baby on the line.

Luckily, she reached a UNFPA clinic, where midwife Porna immediately recognized the signs of eclampsia: the cause of 10% of maternal deaths worldwide, including in Bangladesh.

Thanks to an emergency eclampsia box stocked with lifesaving medicines like magnesium sulphate, labetalol, hydralazine, and oxytocin, Porna and her team were able to act fast. The medicines stopped Fatema’s seizures and saved two lives.

UNFPA delivers shipments of lifesaving medicines around the world to help women like Fatema survive childbirth, recover safely, and raise healthy families.

Will you rush a gift today? Ahead of Giving Tuesday, your gift will be matched and go twice as far to ensure pregnant women, new mothers, and babies get the lifesaving care they need, no matter where they are >>

UNFPA Midwives with an Eclampsia Box, equipped with lifesaving medicine and supplies.

After stabilizing Fatema, Porna knew she needed more advanced care. She called an ambulance and carefully packed a Mama Kit, with essentials for mom and baby after birth, and an Emergency Birth Kit, with all the supplies she needed to give birth safely outside a clinic.

Halfway to the hospital, Fatema went into labor. Thanks to the Emergency Birth Kit and the trained midwife by her side, Fatema safely delivered her baby in the ambulance. Both mother and newborn arrived at the hospital safe and stable.

Midwife Porna with other UNFPA staff treating an expecting mother.

Porna’s skills and foresight along with the medicine in the emergency eclampsia box and the supplies in the Emergency Birth Kit made the survival of Fatema and her baby possible.

Even with midwives like Porna, Cox’s Bazar remains one of the most dangerous places in the world for a mother to give birth.

3 to 5 mothers die from pregnancy-related complications each month in Cox’s Bazar. At night, violence in the camps can prevent ambulances from reaching women with the care they desperately need.

Midwives provide vital care and support to women and girls, but a well-equipped midwife saves lives. Will you make a gift — which will be matched — to equip midwives with two-times the lifesaving medicines and supplies they need to protect women like Fatema and girls in Bangladesh and beyond?

Thank you for being there,

— USA for UNFPA