After Four Losses, Fatima Finally Brings Her Baby Home
For 29-year-old Fatima Al Alawi, pregnancy had never been a time of certainty. After four previous pregnancy losses, each new pregnancy carried the fear that she might lose another child.
When Fatima reached 39 weeks of pregnancy and arrived at Baalbeck Governmental Hospital, her pregnancy was considered high-risk. She was living with chronic hypertension and experiencing persistent headaches and blurred vision. At the same time, financial hardship[KL1] caused by the multilayered crisis raised another concern: whether she could afford to give birth in a hospital.
Unable to afford institutional care during her previous pregnancies, Fatima had delivered all of her previous babies at home. None survived.
Support during this pregnancy offered another chance.
Through Action Against Hunger’s integrated Health and Nutrition programme, Fatima was identified and enrolled in follow-up care before delivery. Through regular home visits, health workers monitored her condition and provided counselling on maternal nutrition, pregnancy danger signs, birth preparedness, and the importance of skilled birth attendance.
She also received Multiple Micronutrient Supplements (MMS) and Lipid-based Nutrient Supplements (LNS) to support her nutritional health during pregnancy. But the cost of hospital care remained a major concern. Fatima mentioned, “Without financial assistance, I was planning to give birth at home once again.” As she had during her previous pregnancies. Financial assistance supported by the Lebanon Humanitarian Fund (LHF) covered the remaining costs of her hospital delivery, helping remove this financial barrier and making skilled maternal care accessible to her.
On 1 July, when Fatima’s blood pressure deteriorated, she underwent an emergency delivery at Baalbeck Governmental Hospital. She safely gave birth to a baby boy weighing 2,200 grams.
But the delivery was not the end of the family’s concerns.
Because of his low birth weight and breathing difficulties, the newborn was admitted to the Intensive Care Nursery (ICN), where he remained for seven days under specialised medical supervision.
During this period, Fatima received individual breastfeeding counselling, practical guidance on hand expression and breast pumping, and a breastfeeding support kit. These interventions helped her establish and maintain her milk supply while her newborn was not yet able to breastfeed directly.
As her son’s condition improved, he was able to transition to direct breastfeeding. Fatima was then able to bring him home. Fatima says, "After losing my children before, I was afraid that the same thing would happen again with this pregnancy. Thanks to the care and support I received, I was finally able to see my baby healthy and bring him home with me."
Following discharge, Action Against Hunger continued supporting Fatima and her baby through regular postnatal home visits. Health teams monitored the baby’s growth, supported breastfeeding, followed Fatima’s recovery, and provided counselling on newborn care.
Ten days after returning home, both mother and baby were in good health, and breastfeeding had been successfully established.
Fatima’s experience illustrates how multiple risks can converge during pregnancy and childbirth. A high-risk of pregnancy, chronic health concerns, nutritional needs, previous pregnancy losses, and crisis-driven financial constraints all limit access to health care and increase the risks faced by mothers and newborns.
Through support from the Lebanon Humanitarian Fund (LHF), Action Against Hunger combines community-based identification and follow-up with maternal nutrition support and financial assistance, critical for safe deliveries, alongside breastfeeding counselling, newborn care, and postnatal follow-up. Together, these services help vulnerable women access appropriate care before, during, and after delivery.
For Fatima, this support helped make a safe hospital delivery possible and ensured that she continued receiving support after her baby was born. After four devastating losses, she was finally able to return home with her newborn son.
