Friend,

This Maternal Health Monday, we head to the world’s largest refugee camp, in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.

In August 2017, Myanmar’s security forces launched targeted attacks against the Rohingya, forcing more than 500,000 people to flee across the border to Bangladesh. With no hope of returning to their homes in the near future, Rohingya refugees live in overcrowded settlements where they struggle to access basic services. Pregnant women often give birth where they live, with little or no assistance from health workers.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been on the ground for years in Cox's Bazar providing medical humanitarian assistance, including critical maternal health care, to Rohingya refugees like Humaira. Already a mother of five, Humaira knew the value of giving birth with medical assistance. After meeting another woman who sought care at MSF’s primary care facility in Jamtoli camp, Humaira came to MSF’s maternal care ward for the delivery of her sixth child.

In Cox’s Bazar, MSF staff assist with deliveries and provide prenatal and postnatal care, family planning services, medical care and mental health support for survivors of sexual violence and other essential services. But the presence of COVID-19 has made the situation for women living in Cox's Bazar even more dire. Infection prevention measures have limited the quantity and range of services our teams have the capacity to provide.

Friend, Rohingya mothers need your help. MSF teams are responding to this crisis and doing everything possible to get lifesaving care to those who need it most.

This Maternal Health Monday, please consider making your first gift to MSF to help our teams deliver essential care to mothers and their children, along with other vital services.