Clinging onto hope

Motherhood, a word that surpasses human emotions and abilities. As soon as a woman is aware of her pregnancy, she is a mother to her child and from that moment onwards, no one could love her child more than she ever will. During pregnancy, the mother feels her baby’s heartbeat, sighs and movements forming an unbreakable bond with her newborn.

Before her baby is born, she vows to love and care for and protect them.

This is motherhood. But in Syria, the most recent figure indicates that at least 7,771 infants were killed due to the Syrian conflict. This means, that 7,771 mothers- at least- had to prematurely bid farewell to their babies forever wondering about their possible future.

Reasons may and do vary, indiscriminate bombing and shelling targeting innocent lives,  targeting health facilities, inadequate living conditions spreading across the Northwest, lack of maternal and infant nutrition items - be it during the earthquake or the crisis in general. TThese factors weigh too heavily on fragile lives, causing mothers like Sama* to  desperately seek help.

“My name is Sama, I am from Southeastern Syria, I have two boys and one girl,” she shares. Like all Syrian mothers, Sama fought to keep her children safe during a ravaging conflict. Countless sleepless nights followed their forced displacement in 2017 to ensure her children were safe and sound. Sama wanted nothing from this world except to see her children safe and healthy. 

It is not a secret that life in displacement camps is challenging, to say the least. A daily quest for survival, food is not guaranteed, clean water is a luxury, a roof is a blessing and a locked door is a wish left unattainable for 12 million Syrians as they all await an uncertain future.  “Our financial situation is dire! My husband sometimes secures a job, other times, he cannot. And when he does, the pay is nothing to be mentioned, we can barely manage food,” she shares. However, each day, Sama is grateful her children are beside her.

One day, Sama was blessed with the news millions of women eagerly await, she is pregnant with a baby boy. Soon her joy was overshadowed by worry. They were barely making ends meet. And now Sama’s body needs to sustain two lives instead of one, the baby boy growing inside of her. Despite all the challenges, she could go through the pregnancy safely. Months passed and the ninth approached signaling the birth due date. However, her baby boy felt more at home with his mother and this led to ten months of pregnancy. 

“I entered my third trimester which led me to visit a free-of-charge hospital and after running some tests it turned out that me and my baby suffer from Placental Calcification,” she shares. 

Placental calcification is a life-threatening abnormality happening when the deposition of calcium-phosphate minerals in placenta tissue causes the placenta to deteriorate gradually. This led Sama to have an emergency c-section in another privet hospital and it was later revealed that the baby was affected because of the Placental Calcification. “My baby was not in good health, he drank some of the amniotic fluid [because of the Placental Calcification] and he was later diagnosed with pneumonia” she shares. 

However, Sama and her baby couldn’t afford the increasing medical bills so they were transferred to a free-of-charge hospital for them to continue their treatment. 

Doctors on stand by

“Sama’s baby arrived here from one of the privet hospitals after he was in the ICU. He suffered from pneumonia and this led to extensive medical bills. Because of this, we coordinated with the parents to transfer the child into our ICU offering this service for free,” a doctor at the hospital funded by World Vision Syria Response. 

Doctors taking care of Sama’s baby, World Vision Syria Response Partner, Shafak.

Upon the child’s admission to the hospital, tests were run to track the pneumonia’s prognosis, liver functions and lung capacity. Also, an X-ray of the lungs was taken and it was evident the baby also suffers from further complications related to pneumonia. Based on this, Sama’s baby was admitted to the ICU.

Sama was in the middle of a storm as doctors were trying to save her baby’s life, prayers never left her mind. Each day she would remain at the hospital hoping her baby would show signs of improvement. Until recently, “after conducting recent tests, it was clear that the child’s health has improved, his lung capacity increased and now we are introducing natural breastfeeding slowly,” the doctor shares. 

Sama is overseeing her child’s being restored and so 10,512 other people thanks to funding from World Vision Syria Response. The project supports children and infants with outpatient and inpatient services, diagnostic services, and treatment courses, and provides diagnostic services, including laboratory tests, X-rays and surgical interventions to children and infants at the pediatric hospital. 

*Name is changed to protect identity.