'Pregnancy and childbirth do not stop in a crisis': Women in Syria forced to give birth in the open

Charities warn expectant mothers and their babies at risk due to the earthquake which devastated the area last month along with the fallout from the war that is adding to the 'shocking situation'

Khalil al-Suwadi holds his niece Afraa, a Syrian baby born under the rubble after the February 6 earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria killing her parents and siblings, in the rebel-held town of Jindayris in northern Syria, on February 21. Picture: Rami al Sayed / AFP via Getty Images

Almost 15,000 women in Syria are expected to give birth in the coming month, but aid agencies warn some are doing so in the open as so many hospitals collapsed during the devastating earthquake.

Mothers in the war-torn region face additional challenges, with one mother of three children under five feeling the loss of her husband now more than ever.