Damascus, Syria (North Press) – “It is unfair to any child to be brought into this kind of life,” these are Yasmin’s, a pseudonym, words who is a 30-year-old government employee living in Damascus’ al-Maza neighborhood.
She described family’s suffering as they face a failing Syrian economy and their concerns for the next generation, in case this crisis continues.
Yasmin and her husband have been married for two and a half years. They have decided not to have children for the time being.
She told North Press, “Deciding not to have children was hard at the beginning, especially when relatives and friends keep asking whether I am pregnant. But since my husband and I are unable to secure even life’s bare necessities, I know we made the right decision.”
She noted, “It is not easy to have children. We have to provide a good life for the child, including clothes, formula, toys, and even education. My husband is a teacher and gives private tutoring lessons as well. However, both our salaries hardly cover our expenses.”
The 24-year-old Maha al-Quwatli, a housewife in the Ruken al-Din area, is looking for a midwife to help her give birth.
Al-Quwatli hopes to have an easy natural birth instead of a cesarean section, which costs more than a million Syrian pounds (SYP, equals $156) at Damascene hospitals.
She told North Press that she hopes to find a midwife in her early pregnancy months rather than see a gynecologist. The medical checkups are very expensive, costing 20.000 SYP ($3, 12) per session. Her husband’s salary, working in a shop, cannot cover them.
The 35-year-old Fatma Khalouf, a mother of two living in the Duwyli’a area, thinks about the expenses related to having babies like those of a wedding feast.
She advises women to think carefully before deciding to have children. If she could find a wet nurse for her son, Khalouf says, she would stop buying baby formula.
“It is expensive, and you can rarely find them in pharmacies these days. Every two months or so, they increase the prices,” she added.
Khalouf wants to put a hold on having more children until the economic conditions in Syria improve.
Starting in October 2022, a shortage of baby formula was reported across the Syrian government-held areas. Baby formula of the Nestlé brand, which is imported legally and the most in-demand, were no longer available. Later on, locally-made baby formula products disappeared of shelves too.
Days earlier, the Syrian Ministry of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection set the price of a 400g can of Nestlé baby milk powder at 18.800 SYP ($2,94) and those of the Kikoz brand at 15.300 SYP ($2,39) in hopes that it might incite merchants to sell existing merchandise.
The 29-year-old Razan Banawi believes women will resort to wet nurses or breastfeeding as a substitute for baby formula. She expects it will soon be accepted and promoted by Syrian women.