Somalia
Nativity on a knife-edge, February 2018
For newborns in Somalia, many of whom are delivered in dusty, makeshift shelters without the assistance of a midwife or doctor, the risk of infection is high. With drought and conflict driving many women from their homes, one child in every 26 dies within 28 days of birth – many on the same day.
Kate Holt travelled out to the camps that have sprung up around the Somali torn of Galkayo to document the effects that the drought is having on new mothers and their young babies.
A community elder prays next to the graves of two young babies who have recently died from his community near the Najah Camp for Displaced People Galkayo, Somalia Monday, Feb. 19, 2018. Neo Natal deaths in Somalia are amongst the highest in the world. Prolonged drought and mass forced displacement as a consequence of this means that many women do not have access to basic medical services.
Women and their children wait outside a temporary community centre in the evening light in the Najar Camp for Displaced People Galkayo, Somalia Monday, Feb. 19, 2018. The effects of a severe drought are still being felt throughout Somalia which has forced thousands of people who were pastoralists to seek food and shelter around towns. Neo Natal deaths in Somalia are amongst the highest in the world and many women do not have access to basic medical services.- Baby Farhia, who is the daughter of Fadumo Abdullahi, is cradled by an aunt in in the maternity ward of Mudug Teaching Hospital Galkayo, Somalia Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. Fadumo has been forced to have a cesarian because she was suffereing from pre eclampsia which was picked up on an anti natal visit. In Soamlai pregant women often do not attend ante natal appointments which means that problems like this cannot be identified early. Neo Natal deaths in Somalia are amongst the highest in the world.
- A young boy is measured to see if he is malnourished at a health centre near the Salaama Camp for Displaced People Galkayo, Somalia Monday, Feb. 19, 2018. Neo Natal deaths in Somalia are amongst the highest in the world. Prolonged drought and mass forced displacement as a consequence of this means that many women and their children do not have access to basic medical services. Malnutrition is an underlying cause of a large percent of deaths in children under the age of five in Somalia.
- Ubah Abdullahi, 22 delivered her baby daughter on the floor of this makeshift shelter at Najah camp for displaced people near Galkayo, Somalia on the 19th February, 2018. by drought. She was in labour all night. “I couldn’t afford to take a taxi to the clinic but my mother in law was here to help,” she said. “My mother in law was here and the women from nearby came to help.”
Women and children made up the majority of the thousands of people who streamed into these makeshift last year because of the devastating drought and conflict. Babies born in these basic shelters are at grave risk due to infections or the lack of any professional help if there are complications during birth. Many babies who die during the first four weeks in Somalia were born prematurely. This is linked to a number of factors including mothers being malnourished, very young mothers giving birth and the high fertility rate with women in Somalia give birth to an average of six or seven children - Sahera Abdi holds a pan containing the only rice she has to feed her five children with, looked on by two of her younger children in her shelter in the Najah Camp for Displaced People Galkayo, Somalia Monday, Feb. 19, 2018. Sahera arrived in the camp two weeks ago alone with her children. One of her children, a four year old girl, died on the journey. Her husband is suffering from mental problems since the death of all of their goats and sheep due to the ongoing droughght and is being looked after by his mother in Galkayo town. Prolonged drought and mass forced displacement as a consequence of this means that many women do not have access to basic medical services.
- Mariam Abdullahi, 26 years old, holds her new born baby in the maternity ward of Mudug Teaching Hospital Galkayo, Somalia Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. Mariam says "During a visit to the doctor before giving birth they told me the baby was large and I knew I would have care in hospital." In 2017 in Somalia only 28 % of babies were born in hospital or clinics. Neo Natal deaths in Somalia are amongst the highest in the world.
- A mother and her baby wait outside a temporary community centre in the evening light in the Najar Camp for Displaced People Galkayo, Somalia Monday, Feb. 19, 2018. The effects of a severe drought are still being felt throughout Somalia which has forced thousands of people who were pastoralists to seek food and shelter around towns. Neo Natal deaths in Somalia are amongst the highest in the world and many women do not have access to basic medical services.
