About 8 million babies were born into crises such as conflict and climate disasters in 2025 so far, with many mothers giving birth in tents, in ill-equipped displacement camps or communities hit by disasters
LONDON/GENEVA, 11 DECEMBER 2025 – About 8 million babies were born into crises such as conflict and climate disasters in 2025, with many mothers giving birth in tents, in ill-equipped displacement camps or communities hit by disasters, said Save the Children.
Analysis of UN data by Save the Children found that an estimated 7.7 million children – 23,000 per day - were born into 43 humanitarian crises around the world in 2025 as of the end of November [1] - about 10% more than five years ago in 2021 when 7 million babies were born into crisis.[2]
An estimated seven in 10 of these babies were born into or fleeing conflicts, [4] such as in Sudan and Gaza, where mothers and newborns are under high levels of threat due to the lack of food, restrictions on aid access, lack of access to quality maternal and newborn care due to the destruction of hospitals and health centres, and chronic stress. The number of children living in conflict zones hit an all-time high of 520 million children in 2024. [3]
Save the Children is calling on world leaders and policy makers to protect and increase funding to maternal, newborn, and child health initiatives, and to recruit, train, and retain health workers, especially midwives, nurses, and community health workers.
Shekinah*, 26, is a mother of four living in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, where maternal and neonatal mortality rates are among the highest in the world [5] and ongoing conflict has destroyed health infrastructure and livelihoods.
Earlier this year, Shekinah gave birth to her youngest child, Muhindo*, by caesarean section at a Save the Children partner hospital in North Kivu province following a complicated pregnancy. Unable to afford hospital care, she feared she might have to give birth at home risking both her life and her baby’s.
Shekinah however heard about the maternal health ward at the hospital, supported by Save the Children where she received free treatment and care.
Shekinah said: “If I didn't have this assistance, I was going to die, because I had neither the money nor the ability to have this child.”
Globally, there are an estimated 2.4 million newborn deaths per year and another 1.9 million babies are stillborn -the vast majority of them in low- and middle-income countries.
In Yemen, where over a decade of conflict and economic collapse has led to one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, an estimated 1,800 babies were born into the crisis every day this year, amid aid cuts which have forced aid agencies to scale back or suspend operations including life-saving health and malnutrition treatment.
Murad*, 8 months, from Taiz, Yemen, developed severe acute malnutrition, in part after his mother Fatima* was unable to afford adequate food during her pregnancy due to the family’s unstable income.
“Before the war, there were job opportunities and income so people could easily afford food. Now everything has changed, and we can barely meet our basic needs,” said Fatima. “My son, Murad, was born weak and has suffered from malnutrition since birth. I thought he would get better, but he grew weaker day after day.”
However, after being referred to a local Save the Children-supported health centre for life-saving nutritional treatment and medical care, Murad’s condition quickly improved, and he continues to recover from malnutrition.
Abraham Varampath, Save the Children’s head of health, nutrition and water, sanitation and hygiene, said:
"Every day, on average, an estimated 23,000 babies make their entry into this world in some of the world’s worst crises, born in under-equipped hospitals in health systems shattered by attacks and restrictions in places such as Gaza and Sudan, while mothers in places hit by floods and heatwaves are forced to make perilous journeys to seek a safe place to deliver, a huge risk during emergencies.
“Instead of the quality newborn care and warm nurturing start that every newborn deserves, many of these babies are engaged in a fight for survival from the moment they are born.
“The majority of newborn and maternal deaths are preventable through access to skilled birth support and quality healthcare. We need to ensure continued funding for primary healthcare, including maternal and newborn care, and to ensure that aid cuts do not jeopardise children’s lives from their first moments.”
Save the Children is also urging the international community to take urgent political action to address the conflicts and climate disasters that decimate health systems, uproot families and disrupt children and their mothers’ access to food, health and nutrition services.
Save the Children strengthens health systems and trains, supports and equips frontline health workers so they can use proven, cost-effective interventions to protect maternal and newborn lives. Our maternity units and mobile clinics are saving lives every day. In 2024, our maternal, newborn and reproductive health services reached 1.4 million babies and 2.1 million mothers and women of reproductive age in 30 countries.
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NOTES TO EDITORS
[1] Save the Children used UNFPA’s MISP calculator available here to estimate the number of babies born in 2025 as of 30 November into populations in need of humanitarian aid, substituting the latest crude birth rates for 2025 available from UN World Population Prospects. The list of 43 humanitarian crises and size of population needing humanitarian support was taken from the 2025 Global Humanitarian Overview (GHO) snapshot update published by OCHA and includes UNHCR refugee response plans. The number of births is an estimate since birth rates are only available at a national level, while figures may differ within a country or among crisis-affected populations. Not all humanitarian crises meanwhile are captured in UN response plans, although they represent a large share.
In Gaza a specific figure on the number live births until July was provided by UNFPA from its Sexual Reproductive Health dashboard. Save the Children extrapolated figures for the remaining four months.
[2] Based on applying the methodology above to January to November 2021 using 2021 birth rates from the UN with populations in humanitarian need in 2021 as per OCHA.
[4] Estimated by Save the Children based on the number of babies born into 28 of 43 humanitarian crises in the OCHA GHO where the UN identifies conflict as among the drivers of the humanitarian crisis or born into conflict-driven refugee situations.
[5] DRC: 427 deaths per 100,000 live births (WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, World Bank Group and UNDESA/Population Division). The neonatal mortality rate is approximately 25 deaths per 1,000 live births (IGME 2023, CME Info - Child Mortality Estimates).
For more information
Aisha Majid, Data Media Manager
Aisha.majid@savethechildren.orgOut of hours (BST) contact
media@savethechildren.org.uk
