Tiniest babies die, all struggle to survive in post-war Iraq

A premature infant suffering from a variety of congenial defects is left to die by its parents in an incubator in Baghdad's Yarmuk Hospital. Travis Heying, Wichita Eagle.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Dr. Dalia Hatem was helping to deliver another woman's baby at Baghdad Teaching Hospital when the heat and noise became too much for her. Dr. Hatem went into premature labor.

When the gynecologist saw her own 35-week-old son for the first time last month, there were tears in her eyes. He had been crying - a tiny, shriveled but healthy infant in an incubator - but as soon as he heard Hatem's voice, he quieted.

"The stress of the labor room got to me, and I started to go into contractions," she said. "I tried bed rest and drugs, but it didn't work."

Amid the daily bombings and mortar attacks, life goes on in postwar Baghdad. People continue to have families, even in the midst of one of the most serious security crises since the war began. But that stress and worsening violence are causing infant mortality rates to rise, according to maternity ward doctors and nurses. They say they're seeing more non-hereditary birth defects and premature births.

Women, frightened by lawlessness and economic instability, have an increased likelihood of giving birth prematurely, doctors say. And because more women are afraid to go out, more are giving birth at home.

"Half our population prefers home delivery, for now, because of the security situation. It's a higher risk for the baby, but they are afraid to go out," said Dr. Afrah Saleh, a senior specialist in the 10-room premature unit of Mansur Pediatric Hospital, which allows new mothers to rest beside incubators holding their fragile infants.

"Premature labor has a lot of psychological causes," Saleh said. "Really, we are under stress. Definitely, the premature deliveries are on the increase after the war."

She also said she'd seen three cases of congenital birth defects in the last three months. Usually she sees just one or two a year.

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An environmental catastrophe ten years in the making and ten generations in the coverup.

Depleted uranium should be outlawed, just like land mines, for its ability to inflict civilian deaths in greater numbers than military deaths.

in Iraq have died because of W's war? Why aren't all the right to lifers screeming about this? Is it because they only care about American fetuses? I will never understand fundie Christians who are pro-life, pro-war and pro-death penalty.

Their Hypocrisy is astounding....

I feel so bad for the innocent Iraqis, suffering just to satisfy the bloodlust of a spoiled, arrogant tyrant. I feel bad for everybody who is being hurt by Bush and his gang. It's a worldwide pain, too, affecting millions.

I feel betrayed by my own country; they are allowing this group to destroy our way of life, and cause widespread war, desolation, and misery all over the world. There is no Hell hot enough, in my opinion, for these people.

If, as Dubya professes, he's a man of faith, it's to some dark lord of evil, and not the God I grew up learning about.

All they can tell me is that they are "collateral damage" and "sacrifices" that must be made. Then I compare their comments to Tim McVeigh's use of that term, "collateral damage" and that Muslims speak of their deaths leading to Paradise. They don't like that much.

wingers are ok with it.

After a baby is born it is on it's own. Taking away it's parents' jobs, health care insurance, home, dignity is ok as long as it wasn't aborted.

Christian Fundamentalism is a not-so-clever cover for racism and White Supremacy.

No matter how long Bush lives, he can look in the mirror and see
this baby. It is said that it is harder for a rich man to get into
Heaven than for a camel to travel through the eye of a needle.
Bush has set a new precedent. Is this awful deed what his "religion"
dictates? Unforgiveable!

you are in God's hands.

the human toll for Bushit's folly will last for decades and affect generations to come.

Jerry Quickly of www.kpfk.org recently made a trip to Baghdad and for a guy who usually can talk and talk about something came back clearly shaken and humbled into a strange kind of quietude by what he had experienced. The one word he used over and over was 'horrific.' He described the air as being thick; a chemical soup that was made breathing laborious.

As Dylan once wrote about other masters of war:

"Even Jesus will never forgive what you do!" and we shouldn't either. Bush and Blair and their cabals must be made to pay for their crimes against humanity. In my best Bush imitation listen up: "We will bring the evildoers to justice!"

in less than one year, worse than what Saddam did in ten? I cringe to think what it must have been like to have been a young child cowering under his/her bed, not able to sleep at night while the bombs fall around you. It breaks my heart what we have done to these people.

I mean they took the time to make a stink outside our MarchforChoice lecture with Ellie Smeal. What about protesting about these children that are suffering in Iraq???