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How a mother’s determination to breastfeed helped her baby survive

Mother and baby in refugee camp in Greece
Khadji and her baby boy Bikas. They live in a refugee camp in Greece.

By Sandy Maroun, Deputy Information and Communications Manager, Save the Children in Greece 

As Khadji welcomes me into her tent, she asks me to have a seat on the ground and she places her little sleeping baby, Bikas, on a makeshift bed.

The bed is simple – a slab of iron, some iron stakes and a couple of blankets.

I ask Khadji if this is the baby’s bed. She gives me a small nod – they don’t have any other choice.

As I look at Bikas, I think about the babies being born and raised in refugee camps in Greece. How will this affect their health and development? Will they still be in these camps when they turn one? Two?

I wish that, like millions of other babies around the world, Bikas had a quiet room and a comfortable cradle to sleep in.

Her treacherous journey

Once Bikas is settled, Khadji, who is 25, tells me her story.

She speaks about the war her family witnessed in Iraq – the shelling and the persecution by armed groups.

She also tells me about the dangerous journey they took from Turkey to Greece on a shaky, inflatable boat while she was pregnant with Bikas.

She wasn’t sure if they would survive, she says. And she was terrified of losing her children in the sea, like so many mothers before her.

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A fearful birth

Khadji also tells me about Bikas’ birth.

On a warm night in the middle of June in the refugee camp, Khadji started to feel contractions that got stronger and closer together.

At first she thought they were passing contractions just like other ones she had earlier in the month.

But as they got stronger she knew she was going to deliver that night.

As her husband looked for a way to get her to hospital, Khadji said she felt lonely and scared.

She had no family around her – no mother to comfort her and tell her everything would be alright, no sister to wipe her sweaty face, no father to help her get to hospital.

When she finally arrived at the hospital, her husband at her side, they found out that she had to undergo a long and painful Caesarian section because the delivery was complicated.

Not only that, her new baby Bikas was suffering from Tachycardia, an abnormally fast heart rate and was only 1.5 kilograms.

He had to be hospitalised for ten days. Khadji told me how worried she was that Bikas wouldn’t survive.

He did survive. But Khadji couldn’t breastfeed him while he was in hospital and he wasn’t putting on weight quickly enough.

Bikas sleeps in a refugee camp in Greece.
Bikas, who was born with Tachycardia after being delivered by Caeserian section.

Learning to breastfeed

Breastfeeding is the best option to make sure babies get the nutrients they need to survive, grow and develop.

But it’s not easy in a refugee camp – mothers live in a stressful environment and face social and economic issues.

They don’t have a safe space to breastfeed and bond with their babies.

Despite this, Khadji tells me how determined she was to breastfeed Bikas after his recovery.

She visited one of our Mother and Baby Areas in the camp. There, our team helped her to breastfeed.

“A container with milk was attached to a tube that was taped to my breast,” she explains.

“So while Bikas was sucking my breast, he was getting milk from the tube. It helped me get my milk back.”

She’s been breastfeeding Bikas several times a day for six weeks now, she tells me proudly, and he now weighs 3.5 kilograms.

How we help mothers and babies 

Our nutrition programme in Greece helps mothers and their young children by giving them a quiet, private and relaxing space to breastfeed babies, as well as advice and counselling about feeding your baby and young children.

Skilled counsellors also work with mothers having difficulties breastfeeding and help them continue to breastfeed.

Another life

I find Khadji’s determination remarkable. Despite the harshness of life in a refugee camp far from her home and family, she’s trying her hardest to breastfeed her baby and give him the best start in life.

I wonder about Khadji in a different setting. In a beautiful home raising her three young and healthy sons who go to school every day; living with her husband who has a stable job and who surrounds her and their children with care.

Hopefully, one day soon, this will be Khadji’s reality.

You can help us reach more child refugees – donate now

Our nutrition programme in Greece is funded by the United Nations Refugee Agency, the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department, Probitas and UBS.

Names changed to protect identities

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