Earthquake in Delivery Room
4 Hospitals Until Birth
Iman Hamrawi
Days before birth, Samar (23 years old) was getting ready to welcome her baby into the world: decorations, catering, and baby necessities.
Everything seemed fine. Samar thought she was finally safe, now that she’s away from the war and all the bombing. She’s one of the 3,762,000 Syrians who sought refuge in Turkey after witnessing the war and the bombing in their country. She fled Aleppo in 2016, thinking that living in danger is ancient history. However, the earthquake of February 6, 2023 has changed everything.
What Happened?
"At 4:30 a. m., on Monday (February 6), we woke up in panic over the sound of furniture shaking after the first quake. We put on our clothes quickly, and headed downstairs to our car”.
Samar was 36 weeks pregnant, and she was in two shocks: the earthquake’s and the labor’s. “My water broke from the panic. I didn’t know what to do at that time of the day, so we waited until morning. And then, we went to a public hospital so that I’d give birth”,she says.
To her surprise, everything in the hospital was upside down after the earthquake. “Women giving birth in hallways, delivery rooms unequipped, and only a curtain separating one woman from another ــــ yet, uncovering everything once removed”, Samar describes the state of the hospital after the earthquake.
"There were even cats, in the hospital, at our feet. I didn’t know what they were doing there at those critical moments”, she continues.
They went to another public hospital, but it was no better. She called her physician, saying that it was time for delivery.
Baby in Danger
The fetus’s heart rate started to get lower and lower, until it was in danger. She needed to give birth, but her body refused to respond to ancillary medications and attempts to induce cervical dilation.
Finally, the physician decided to do a C-section.
The physician prepped Samar for surgery, and was ready to anesthetize her.
As doctors were working so that Samar would give birth, another intense quake struck and forced everyone in the room, and in the hospital altogether, to flee into the streets.
"I found myself with my fetus alone, in a hospital gown, and with serum attached to my hand. I rushed out of the hospital, scared to death”, she explains.
When the physician came back, after the second quake was over, she told me that I had to go to another hospital as the building of that hospital was old and could fall at any moment. So, she did.
And then, she went into the operating room and gave birth to a healthy child. Karam came to the world after two earthquakes had struck both earth and humanity.
"I don’t know how I miraculously survived. I might have been dead, had the physician anesthetized me before the quake,” Samar says sobbing.
After Birth?!
The temperature was below zero. Samar was in need of care and warmth after giving birth, but that was a luxury survivors couldn’t afford.
After the earthquake, water and even gas were cut off by the government. And so, houses became an extension to the ice outside. Let alone the houses that were completely destroyed, and were no longer a place where residents can return to.
"I am afraid of going back to the house, and I am afraid of the aftershocks. My state doesn’t allow me to run,” Samar says.
Samar and her family are currently living at a relative’s house that wasn’t affected. She’s trying to get over her fears, after another disaster added to the list of crises that have been following Syrians since 2011.
On February 6, 2023, a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkey and northern Syria. In hours, another 7.6-magnitude quake followed, along with hundreds of intense aftershocks, resulting in major losses of souls and properties in both countries.
Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, had announced a three-month state of emergency in 10 provinces “worst-affected” by the earthquake that has killed 35 thousands in both Turkey and Syria.
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