Baby boom predicted in tsunami-hit Aceh<\/p>\n
Margie Mason, Associated Press\/Jantho, Aceh<\/p>\n
Giggling women swarm outside a little gray tent in Block D of a
\nsprawling refugee camp. The attraction is one tiny miracle - 2-
\nmonth-old Asmaul Tzuchina, swaying peacefully in a cloth hammock.<\/p>\n
The baby simply known as Tzuchi, which means \"pure\" in
\nAcehnese, represents new life and hope for the women who lost
\nchildren to the earthquake-spawned tsunami nearly a year ago.<\/p>\n
Many grieving mothers are desperate to rebuild family and
\nhome, even if the latter is just a plastic tent or a cramped
\nbarrack. No one has counted all the pregnant women in Indonesia's
\ntsunami-stricken Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam province, but UNICEF's
\nDr. Brian Sriprahastuti says she doesn't need statistics to know
\nwhat's coming.<\/p>\n
\"A baby boom,\" she says. \"We have to do that because if not,
\nwe will lose a generation in Aceh.\"<\/p>\n
UNICEF estimates more than a third of the 216,000 dead or
\nmissing in 12 Indian Ocean countries were children - too weak to
\nrun, swim or simply hang on.<\/p>\n
Sriprahastuti has noticed a surge in pregnancies since August
\nfollowing a flurry of marriages, including mass weddings where
\nhundreds of couples in refugee camps have taken vows to start
\nover. She predicts many of those newlyweds will soon be cradling
\nnewborns.<\/p>\n
\"This is just the beginning,\" she says, smiling. \"We will be
\nvery busy next year.\"<\/p>\n
Baby Tzuchi's 23-year-old mother, Erlina, also sees it coming.
\n\"Most of my friends here are two months pregnant,\" she says,
\nwhile breast-feeding.<\/p>\n
In a patient log book at the Jantho refugee camp, a midwife
\nscans dozens of handwritten names, ages and tent locations. Forty
\nwomen are listed as pregnant.<\/p>\n
Cut Asmika is one of them. She pours sweat as she sits in a
\nsarong, tenderly stroking her bulging belly. Also 23, she is due
\nany day and believes the treasure inside promises escape from the
\nloneliness left by the tsunami.<\/p>\n
Asmika's mother, father and all three siblings were washed
\naway in Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra island. Scared and
\nalone, she married a man she hardly knew in a mass wedding in
\nFebruary and immediately began trying to start a family.<\/p>\n
\"I'm the only person to survive, so I'm all alone,\" she says
\nsoftly, sitting on a straw mat in the stuffy tent with a zipper
\ndoor. \"If I have a baby, I will have a friend.\"<\/p>\n
In another tent, 33-year-old Faridah, also sits on the floor,
\na television blaring behind her. Children scamper about barefoot
\nand she laughs, as though they're a family. But then come tears.<\/p>\n
The kids belong to neighbors, and the pictures of two smiling
\nfaces taped on the plastic wall behind are her lost 10-year-old
\nson and 8-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n
All she remembers is grabbing them and running. But the waves
\nripped them from her arms. She awoke hours later atop a soggy
\nmattress on the ground. Alone.<\/p>\n
She never found their bodies and continues to visit mass
\ngraves to pray for their souls. She and her husband long to start
\nover, but in October she started bleeding aboard a bus home from
\nvisiting family during the Muslim holy month of Ramadhan.<\/p>\n
She miscarried in her third month.<\/p>\n
\"I lost my two children, and I want to have a baby so I don't
\nkeep grieving for them,\" she says, trying to hide her tears.
\n\"Many women, even though they lost some children, they still have
\nsome. Not like me. I lost all of them.\"<\/p>\n
Desperation is pushing some to extremes.<\/p>\n
Post-menopausal women are asking midwives if they can still
\nconceive. Some take pregnancy stick tests with them every time
\nthey visit the camp toilet. Others in their 40s are risking
\ncomplications by trying to use the tiny reproductive window they
\nhave left.<\/p>\n
The waves left a swath of traumatized women across Asia.<\/p>\n
In Sri Lanka, some are undergoing operations to try to reverse
\nsterilization procedures. One of those is 31-year-old Arunmugam
\nShanthi, who lost both her children to the waves. Despite
\nsurgery, she remains infertile.<\/p>\n
\"I will wait for some time,\" she says. \"If I am not pregnant
\nagain, I will kill myself.\"<\/p>\n
Sriprahastuti, who runs UNICEF's Safe Motherhood program in
\nAceh, says most expectant mothers and newborn babies are healthy
\noverall, but pregnancy is risky for any woman over 35. She tells
\nthem to visit trained midwives for prenatal checkups and to
\ndeliver at a hospital, rather than at home.<\/p>\n
But even those who are supposed to warn older women about such
\ndangers are disregarding their own advice.<\/p>\n
Asma Sulaiman, a midwife for 20 years, lost five of her six
\nchildren in the tsunami. At 44, she too is trying to start over.<\/p>\n
\"If only God gives us one, it will make us happier,\" says the
\nsoft-spoken woman in a white silk head scarf. \"Losing many
\nchildren - it's not a little thing. It's a big thing.\"<\/p>\n
She miscarried in August but continues to try.<\/p>\n
Many Acehnese women are devout Muslims who believe it's in
\nGod's hands. \"Aceh will have a lot of babies,\" says 35-year-old
\nAsnidar, who like many Indonesians uses one name. \"Although we
\nhave no money, we will keep having children.\"<\/p>\n
Her prayers have already been answered. She is five months
\npregnant.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/baby-boom-predicted-in-tsunami-hit-aceh-1447893297",
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