The complications of pregnancy and delivery is one of the major causes of death and disease among refugee women of childbearing age. While it is difficult to obtain accurate statistics on the number of pregnant refugees worldwide, an estimated 25% of such women are pregnant at any given time. The dislocation, inadequate shelter, minimal food rations, poor sanitation, and physical danger typical of refugee life make safe motherhood almost impossible. In such situations, fertility rates tend to be extremely high, with refugee women having very large numbers of children in response to pressure on them from leaders to rebuild the population, improvements in child survival rates, and the absence of fertility-regulating information and services. Closely spaced pregnancies are thus common. The two field operations manuals created out of the 1995 Inter-Agency Symposium on Reproductive Health in Refugee Situations recommend making safe motherhood a high priority during both the emergency and stabilization phases in refugee situations.

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Parents refugee maternal health population Migrants demography Population Dynamics Family And Household Refugees health service morbidity family size Disease Family Characteristics health Diseases Morbidity--women Mothers health services Article Family Relations Maternal-child Health Services mother migration family relation Demographic Factors Maternal-Child Health Centers Refugees--women maternal welfare Emigration and Immigration health center Transients and Migrants Delivery of Health Care Maternal Health Services Family Relationships general aspects of disease primary health care health care delivery parent