Her group is now investigating an underground maternity ward in an apartment in the town of Famagusta in Northern Cyprus. The mothers described it as a clandestine hospital. They said the nurses spoke only Turkish, and the doctors didn’t know their medical histories.

“When I came to the hospital a doctor was surprised to hear I had a C-section before,” said one of the women, who offered only her first name, Ira, because she does not want family and friends to know of her work as a surrogate mother.

It was too late to follow safe practice and deliver her next child by Cesarean, as her cervix was opening, she said. “An anesthesiologist arrived wearing a down jacket,” rather than scrubs, inside the makeshift hospital, and she gave birth.

Several hours later, she watched the baby die on a table nearby while medical workers were trying to save her own life, she said. She was bleeding internally and vomiting.

“They obviously did not have enough staff,” Ira said. “They put the baby aside, it was a nice healthy-looking girl. She did not breathe but I saw her moving,” Ira said, crying while recalling the ordeal, which took place in February.

After the death, the Turkish doctors demanded the women give birth by C-section, though one was allowed a vaginal birth.

“I begged to give birth naturally,” Ms. Troyan said. “They promised me I could, but the doctor suddenly came and said I am having a C-section, right now.”

Source: New York Times

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