Threadbare facilities, high mortality, cats in the corridors: the realities of life for new Rohingya mothers in Cox’s Bazar

In the world’s largest refugee site, a lack of healthcare coupled with rising gang violence makes the journey to motherhood a perilous onePhotographs by Thomas Cristofoletti/Ruom for the GuardianIt is mid-afternoon on a Wednesday and Toyoba Begum, 37, is sitting upright at the end of her hospital bed, the second in a row of eight. Dressed in a beige tunic and canary yellow trousers, a belly recovery belt clasped around her stomach, she watches her two-day-old daughter sleeping under a fleece blanket.She says she feels a great sense of relief that her fourth baby arrived safely into the world. That was not the case three years ago when Begum laboured for six days. Her third baby was eventually delivered by caesarean section but did not survive. Continue reading...