Letter: Unto Sarajevo a child is born

Sir: I am writing this letter from my bed in Sarajevo Hospital. Seven days ago I gave birth to a baby girl; she was born 18 days early, and weighed 2,800 grams and was 50 cms long. She has my nose and my mouth and two sweet round cheeks, just as I always imagined.

The delivery wasn't especially difficult, but the doctors had to cut me and the wound hurts me quite a lot. I was extremely lucky, because when I came to the hospital, the electricity and water arrived as well. Otherwise the doctors would have had to have done my stitches by torchlight. In these conditions they cannot wash the babies, so we mothers have to bring our own water and medicine to the hospital.

They sew wounds with very thick needles and they don't have any more new surgical cotton, so you see, giving birth was a horrible pain. When there is no gas, there is no heating; so I was completely frozen while lying on the table waiting for the doctors. All the bedding in the maternity hospital is blood-stained, filthy and torn. I hope my bedding was washed after I used it.

When water arrives at the hospital, it is a real blessing. About the toilets - you don't need to know and I can't describe. I will have to stay for seven days because my baby was jaundiced. As soon as she gets better, we plan to return home.

There is some hope. We have one-and-a-half cubic metres of wood for fuel. Sometimes we have gas or electricity, so I hope we will survive this winter. We have some baby clothes from our friends and neighbours and some from complete strangers. Symbolic aid for new mothers is given away by the health department: nappies and maybe some baby food. I only think about my baby, she has pressed everything else out of my life.

Very often there is grenading in various parts of town; it's very unpredictable. Recently, there have been many victims who are children. The first snow has fallen, and the freezing temperatures are just starting. We still want to escape Sarajevo, and we will grab our first chance. Horror rules the town.

Yours sincerely,

AIDA ARKUS

Sarajevo

16 November

The writer is using a pseudonym.