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Bahrain Government Restricts Migrant Women’s Access to Public Hospitals for Childbirth in Certain Cases

On September 26, 2024

On September 2, 2024, Raja S. Hasan Al Yusuf, CEO of Government Hospitals in Bahrain, issued a circular directing all government hospitals to refer non-Bahraini patients to private hospitals or their primary hospitals for delivery under the following conditions:

  • The patient is low-risk with no medical issues.
  • The patient is at 37 weeks or term (not preterm).
  • The patient is not booked in primary care or does not have follow-up at Salmaniya Medical Complex.
  • The patient is not in active labour (cervical dilation of 3 cm or less).

The CEO stated that the decision was implemented to “improve the services and quality of care provided to patients at government hospitals.”

Most migrant women, especially those with low incomes, opt to give birth at public hospitals like Salmaniya Hospital due to the lower delivery costs, which are typically around BD 150 (US$ 398) for a regular delivery. In contrast, private hospitals charge nearly twice as much. Since 2020, Bahrain’s Ministry of Health has not released annual statistical reports. However, the latest data shows that in 2020, there were 13,647 live births in public hospitals, with 4,234 of these being to migrant parents. In private hospitals, there were 1,098 live births to migrant parents out of a total of 4,079 births.

When migrant women obtain a visa, their employer or dependent sponsor (usually their husband or father) must pay health insurance fees intended to cover public healthcare costs. The health insurance costs BD 144 (US$ 382) for a two-year work permit. Many migrants either do not have private health insurance or do not have coverage that includes maternity care, resulting in out-of-pocket expenses for private healthcare during delivery.

Migrant women in Bahrain already face limited access to postnatal and maternity care. While hospitals are required to admit women in labour in emergency situations regardless of visa status or ability to pay, they cannot obtain birth certificates, travel documents, or immigration clearance for their infants until they settle their hospital debts and provide marriage certificates.

The recent move is part of a broader trend over recent decades to either exclude or increase fees for migrants accessing public services. This decision may also breach international conventions that Bahrain has ratified. For instance, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) stipulates in Article 12 that party states should take all “appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of health care in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, access to health care services, including those related to family planning,” and to “ensure to women appropriate services in connection with pregnancy, confinement and the post-natal period, granting free services where necessary, as well as adequate nutrition during pregnancy and lactation.”