Fleeing Islamic State with a three-week-old baby
The human tragedy of refugees fleeing Mosul includes a new mother and a pregnant woman frightened of what will happen when her baby comes, writes Anna-Lisa Fuglesang in Irbil.
Wafaa’s baby is now only 38 days old.
“It took us 12 hours to get here and I was bleeding the whole way”, she tells me as I talk to her from the sanctuary of St Joseph’s church in Irbil, Iraq.
“We had no food or water, we had to sleep on the road until they let us in here”, she says whilst cradling tiny Lavina in her arms.
She and her family fled from their home in Hamdaniya, east of Mosul, when they heard Islamic State (IS) were in the area.
“We were afraid of Daesh [the Iraqi name for IS], we saw people leaving, so we decided to leave. What else could we do?”
Wafaa’s story is not unusual or unique in this deeply troubled area but it still shocks me.
Fleeing from your home three weeks ago, when your baby is 18 days old, when you are physically drained, trying to keep your child alive must be terrifying on every level.
Ruaa, also from Hamdaniya, is eight months pregnant and is faced with giving birth in a refugee camp.
When I ask her what made her leave her home she doesn’t hesitate.
“I was frightened for my health and the health of my baby. There is good care here but if I had stayed behind it would have been a different story.”
Ruaa’s husband Milad tells me his two brothers stayed.
“They cannot leave the city. IS say they will kill them if they try.”
The last woman I speak to before I leave St Joseph’s church is Sabah.
She is expecting her fourth child in a few weeks’ time. What she said left a lasting impression on me.
“I’m not frightened of having the baby here. The care is good and the ambulance will come quickly to take me to the hospital. What scares me is when the baby comes, I will have nowhere to be alone with my child, there will be no privacy.”
The human nesting instinct is present even here where people have lost everything.
As I get up to leave Sabah says something in Arabic to my translator, Sobaz, and everybody laughs. I ask him what she said. “She is having a boy and she is thinking about calling him Daesh.”
I’m glad that her fears have not overwhelmed her and she can still find a way to giggle. I would find that near impossible in her situation.
Follow Anna-Lisa Fuglesang on Twitter.
This 2 week old baby was born 2 days before IS arrived in her family’s village forcing them to flee. #c4news pic.twitter.com/wbqYV27ugy
— Anna-Lisa Fuglesang (@C4annalisa) August 17, 2014
