For Refugee Moms, Giving Birth Can Be Fraught with Danger

When Souad Iessa showed up at a hospital in Greece in the fall of 2016, the heavily pregnant Syrian refugee thought she was coming in for a routine cesarean section. It turned out to be anything but. Iessa, 25, had spent the first six months of her pregnancy on the run, and another three in a poorly served refugee camp with little access to prenatal care. Nurses from the mobile clinic that served Iessa’s camp had no way of knowing that her placenta was in the wrong place.