When the earthquake struck, Fatmah Ahmad’s household fled their constructing within the northern Syrian metropolis of Aleppo just for her to enter labour – giving delivery to her third little one in hospital a couple of hours later.

The journey to hospital had been troublesome, with “many deaths and harm round us”, she mentioned, earlier than rescue staff guided them to security.

“Could God defend him, give him an excellent life and never deprive me of him,” she mentioned of her new son, named Najm al-Din Mahmoud.

“He introduced me again to life. I used to be afraid of dropping him,” she added.

Even after he was born, mom and child confronted hazard. A giant aftershock struck later that day as they lay in an upstairs maternity ward.

Unable to maneuver, they have been left alone because the medical doctors fled for security. Her mother and father and her different two youngsters, aged one and three, had been on a decrease ground of the hospital, she mentioned. Her husband, a soldier, is stationed outdoors Aleppo and was not there.

“I wrapped him up and began praying for God to guard us till the earthquake ends and we will go down safely,” she mentioned.

Evacuated from their dwelling and now launched from hospital, the household live quickly in a tent, a part of a shelter space close to the airport put aside by the town for individuals displaced by the earthquake.

Their constructing didn’t collapse however they can’t return till it has been cleared as secure to dwell in.

In the meantime Najm lies swaddled in blankets, his tiny eyes closed, because the household prepares bedding on the tent ground. Recounting the journey of his delivery, and feeding her small different youngsters, his mom beams with happiness.