Giving Birth under Bombardment
Niloofar Hamedi's report for Shargh Newspaper, published June 23rd 2025
Now she’s the size of a celery bush. There’s been good fat growth around her arms and thighs, but it’s not enough to keep the baby warm if she were to be born now. Last week she managed to shut her eyes for sleep. If everything goes well, the baby will be born in four weeks. A girl who wasn’t supposed to open her eyes to a sky that has rockets falling from it, but now that life has made this her fate, her parents have decided to call her ‘Iran’. It is exactly 10 days since the start of war and during all these stressful days, there have been parents who right next to flames of fire, have kept their hearts warm with the light of their expected traveller. During days when the sound of sirens mixes with the beating of babies’ hearts, there are women who, although frightened of war, have also embraced life in between anxiety and stress. There are women here who, even in the darkest of times, believe in the birth of hope.
I want my child to be born in her own city and home
Fariba was 35 weeks pregnant when flames of war started, beginning suddenly and making everyone sleepless - women, men, children, elderly, and the youth alike. Quickly and cruelly it became a barrier against life. But the secret of life is in its continuous flow, especially for families who wanted life not only for themselves, but for a traveller en-route. For parents awaiting their babies’ birth, despite its hardships and heaviness, war has to come and go. It was the same for Fariba: “Did we get scared? Without a doubt. The first moment when my husband Saeed took my blood pressure, things were not at all okay. I called my doctor quickly. We did all the basic recommendations and agreed that if things did not get better we would go to the hospital. But there was something inside me telling me I had to get better. Now is not the time. I didn’t want my child to feel lack of safety in me, without even being born yet. I don’t know if I was getting energy from her or she from me, but whatever it was, I felt better after about 2 hours.”
Fariba and Saeed’s decision, despite all the worries their families had, has been not to leave Tehran: “Everyone said it would be better if we left Tehran, but honestly I felt I’d feel more safe right here. Staying in our own home was the best thing for me, although at night time there are sounds around that affect my sleep. I can’t say I’m not stressed, but in the end we feel better in our own home. When my daughter is born, I also want her to be in her own room, her own home, and her own city.”
But Fariba has an interesting story about the path to choosing her daughter’s name: “I think most people think about their future child’s name. Even those who don’t want to get married or have children also imagine a name for their child. I always wanted to be a mum and I can say I’ve had this thought since I was young. I always imagined I would have a daughter and so all the names were girls’ names. My husband wanted to call our daughter ‘Āfāgh’ and my choice was ‘Shahzād’. That was until war started. The first couple of days were spent in shock and disbelief. On the third night I went to sleep with the sound of Maestro Mohammad Nouri, singing: we have faced such dangers, to reach for a kiss on top of the mountains … When I woke up in the morning I told my husband: ‘what do you think about calling our daughter ‘Iran’?’ He didn’t say anything. Just cried silently.”
I am worried for the mothers who have nowhere to go
“In a few hours we packed all our life and left Tehran”; this is Shabnam’s description of the first day of war. When war began, she was in the 26th week of her pregnancy and everything was perfect, until, with the start of bombardment of Tehran, everything changed: “I didn’t notice anything at 3AM on Friday. I was asleep and incidentally it was one of those nights that I had managed to sleep. But when I woke up and heard the news, everything changed. I tried to stay calm but the flood of news kept coming, one after the other, and I had no control over my peace of mind. My husband tried to make everything seem normal, even saying it would be over soon in the first few hours. But I could see from his eyes that he himself didn’t believe what he was saying. Our families kept calling us to see how we were. Talking with them stressed me out even more. Finally I managed to find my doctor, who only said one thing: don’t stay in Tehran. And so it was that we packed everything in a few hours and left the city.”
Shabnam and her husband left Tehran based on the recommendation of a specialist, so they could spend the final weeks of the pregnancy in calmer circumstances: “My doctor’s opinion was that the situation is not stable, and it is not good for me or the baby to be in the centre of danger these days. They asked me if we had the possibility to stay somewhere until our baby is born, and when we said we can stay in one of the [Northern] towns in Mazandaran, they gave us the information of a doctor there to keep in touch with in the coming weeks.”
It is not easy for them to live away from their home and city, but they are fully focused on the health of the baby. Masoud thinks his wife is much more in control of the situation compared to him: “I had always seen in stories and movies that pregnant women lose their control. I think they don’t know anything about the power of a mother who is nurturing a being inside of her. The power I have seen from my wife these days has been beyond human. She was much better at being in control of herself and the situation. She hasn’t made a single complaint and doesn’t want our child to feel the slightest tension. To be honest, I am jealous of that baby for having such a mother.”
There is still two months until the expected birth, but they are not worried for themselves. Shabnam says she’s thinking about other parents with similar circumstances but no possibility to move to somewhere safer: “To be honest we are fine. My husband and I are somewhere safe. Our families are comfortable and apart from messing up some plans we had, nothing strange has happened to us. But I worry about men and women who are expecting like us but who cannot stay somewhere safe in the coming weeks. Or they have serious problem with their working situation or earnings, and are now worried about the costs of giving birth. Now it is just the thought of these families that haunts me. The thought that not all babies who are born have equal luck and opportunity for safety and a happy life.”
Doctors writing prescriptions with their hearts
Shabnam is not the only person who has these worries, a similar concern made Bita take serious action. She is a 58-year-old midwife and has helped women have easier birth experiences her whole life. Now she has sterilised part of her own home and offers it to families who for any reason are not able to reach a healthcare facility. She lives in Tehran: “One of the most beautiful moments in my whole life has been the moment when mothers embrace their babies right after giving birth. Possibly this moment is one of the most precious images in the whole history of humankind. It’s even beautiful among animals. I knew from the moment war began that there would be many families who cannot access health centres and the costs would be too high for them. As I have also seen the [Iran-Iraq] war days, I thought to myself the best thing to do would be to set up a safe and healthy centre for poorer families. After all, I have studied for this and have done this all my life.”
She does other medical care as well: “I have done other things since the start of war. Anything I am fluent in the medical field, from giving injections to bandaging up. A couple of times I cared for patients for a few hours who didn’t have anyone. I mean to say that when it’s war circumstances, we have to live according to the new conditions. And there is no other way.”
But volunteer activities such as these may be the only bright side of war; that moment where people rush to help one another. Many doctors in different cities of Iran, especially specialised in women and births, have announced they are offering services free of charge. Ladan TorabNejad is one of such people in Tabriz. She has advanced midwifery diploma and announced on her Instagram page that she would help all pregnant mothers in need of advice or consultation. She has publicised her phone number and email address, announcing she would be able to visit pregnant women personally.
Sahar GholamNejad in Mazandaran is another doctor who has made such an announcement. She is a gynaecologist and announced on her social media page that, until further notice, she will be offering free services to people travelling to her province following war, and who do not have the possibility to receive care from their own specialist. Many other doctors in Tehran have also made themselves available, noting again that in these moments we should be thinking about pregnant women and their foetuses.
This is a translation of a report published in Shargh Daily Newspaper. Read the original report in Persian here