Hundreds of thousands of pregnant women need help in earthquake-torn Turkey, Syria

Zeynep Atılgan Özgenç had trouble wrapping her mind around the horrific stories she heard from new mothers and mothers-to-be in Turkey and Syria.

As a communications analyst for the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, Özgenç has spent the last nine days on the ground in some of the areas most affected by the powerful earthquake two weeks ago.

“I saw them personally. I heard their stories,” said Özgenç, a spokesperson for the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) in Turkey. As it happens hosted by Nil Köksal. “I still can’t believe it’s real.”

Among the survivors of the earthquake, there are more than 226,000 pregnant women in Turkey and 130,000 in Syria today who urgently need access to reproductive health, according to UNFPA. Of these, 38,800 are expected to be delivered next month.

Many lost their homes and all their possessions. Some have lost friends and family, had no support network during their pregnancy. And all of them, says UNFPA, struggle to access health care, hygiene products, or even basic necessities.

That’s because the two countries are still picking up the pieces after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Turkey on February 6, killing at least 45,000 people – a number that could grow after a new earthquake struck the country on Friday.

A story of loss and survival

Incredible stories of pregnant women have emerged from Turkey and Syria after the first earthquake.

A Yemeni woman gave birth days after being pulled from the rubble in Malarya, Turkey.

A woman gives birth under the rubble of a five-story apartment building in Jinderis, Syria. Rescuers found the baby still attached by an umbilical cord to its mother, Afraa Abu Hadiya, who did not survive.

Mohammad Alouch, a Syrian refugee living in Chester, NS, told CBC Nova Scotia last week that he is worried about his sister, who is eight months pregnant and stranded in Gaziantep, Turkey, with her husband and two children.

“It makes everyone sad because her health is not good and the baby is not good and she has to have an operation and we don’t know how it’s going to happen,” she said. “Last week he couldn’t shower or eat hot food or anything.”

Özgenç has also seen and heard stories from pregnant women who stayed with him. He said a woman in Adıyaman, Turkey, was scheduled for a C-section on the morning of the Feb. 6 quake.

“They just left the house before it collapsed, and then they watched it collapse,” he said.

Still in shock, the woman and her family began going to the hospital for the procedure, only to find that a large section of the hospital had also collapsed. The part that remained operational treated only those injured in the earthquake.

For three days, Özgenç said, the family lived on the streets, in cars or in shelters, until they were finally able to leave the city. Five days after her scheduled C-section, the woman finally gave birth.

But the new baby, Özgenç said, was not healthy.

“Hospitals and doctors are doing everything they can,” he said. “The baby is trying to survive now.”

Another woman in Adiyaman was eight months pregnant when she was buried under the rubble for a day. His mother pulled him out with his bare hands, Özgenç said.

The woman, but the two-year-old girl, who was buried with her, was not.

“The mother is healthy. The unborn baby is also healthy. But the trauma, the pain, is indescribable,” said Özgenç. “It’s unimaginable, these stories.”

‘This service saves lives’

To address the crisis, UNFPA said it is working with partners to deploy mobile units to the most affected areas in both countries to provide health care, social work and psychological care, and deliver kits with basic and maternal hygiene needs.

“Women and girls affected by the earthquake must be safe and protected, and able to access quality sexual and reproductive health care when they need it,” UNFPA executive director Dr Natalia Kanem said in a press release. “These services save lives and should be an integral part of the response.”

On Monday, when Özgenç was returning from a fact-finding mission to his home in Ankara, Turkey, a new earthquake of 6.4 on the Richter scale struck the city of Defne, in Turkey’s Hatay province, one of the areas most affected by the February 6 earthquake. .

It was felt in Syria, Jordan, Israel and as far as Egypt.

Officials said more buildings collapsed, trapping occupants and injuring several people in both countries.

“It is difficult to describe the true feeling, as a person, as a citizen of Turkey, and as a UN official,” Özgenç said. “We are just beginning the healing.”

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With files from The Associated Press and CBC News. Interview with Zeynep Atılgan Özgenç produced by Katie Geleff.