Born at the Gates of Hell: A Doctor's Frontline Story of Delivering Babies in al-Hol Camp in Syria

A story of violence, murder, and despair in a remote camp surrounded by razor wire-but also of love and life against all odds Imagine what it's like to be pregnant and give birth-or to try to care for and protect a family in the middle of hopelessness? An OB-GYN at the center of the Syrian refugee crisis recounts 9 months at the al-Hol camp-a place of violence, murder, and survival Imagine what it's like to be pregnant and give birth-or to try to care for and protect a family in the middle of hopelessness? This book is not about politics. It is about individual human beings in a dry, barren landscape. Up to 74,000 people at a time-mostly women, babies, and children-live for years in tents and have no prospect of leaving because no country will have them. Maria Milland takes readers on a powerful, documentary journey to meet the pregnant and laboring women facing the difficult, harsh, and violent living conditions of al-Hol camp in northeast Syria. Her firsthand account provides vivid, unique, and honest insight into life inside the camp, which has never before been described to the outside world. Amidst the brutal everyday realities of the camp, the maternity ward is a safe space, where health problems, as well as existential challenges, are displayed and embraced-and children are born. Behind towering fences, sprawling in the desert's nothingness, they spend their childhood deprived of fundamental human rights, and with the looming risk of growing into a new generation of Islamic fundamentalists. Beautifully written and carefully observed, this is not only a story of resilience and hope in the face of hopelessness, but also serves as a powerful reminder of our shared humanity.

Table of Contents:
1.PROLOGUE
2.DEPARTURE TIME
3.ARRIVAL AT THE END OF THE WORLD
4.AL-HOL HOSPITAL
5.BEGINNING LIFE IN AL-HOL
6.CESAREAN SECTION
7.YOUNG MOM
8.SANDSTORMS AND SICKNESS
9.CONSUMPTION
10.AT THE GATES OF HELL
11.PHASE 2 OF THE HUMANITY AND SECURITY OPERATION
12.HEADLESS
13.SHIPS OF THE DESERT
14.MISSION COMPLETED
15.AFTERWORD
16.WORDS OF GRATITUDE
17.BIBLIOGRAPHY

About the Author :
Maria Milland is a Danish obstetrician and gynecologist who has been deployed 13 times for international organizations to various countries throughout Africa, the Middle- and Far-East, and the Caribbean. In 2022, she was dispatched to Syria where she worked at one of the al-Hol-camp's hospitals for 9 months. Born at the Gates of Hell is her first book.

Review :
Here's what Netgalley reviewers are saying:

“One of my goals this year was to expand my worldview by learning more about the world around me outside of my privileged bubble. This book does just that.”
—SHANNON, early reviewer

“At a time when global attention shifts quickly and entire humanitarian crises fade from public consciousness, this work insists that we look directly at lives that are too often forgotten.”
—TOVE, early reviewer

“Challenges us as the readers to realize that just because people have escaped to a refugee camp doesn't mean the fight is over.”
—MIRIAM, early reviewer

“Please read this book. You will not have a good time, but your understanding about the world we live in, about people, about politics will have a massive shake-up.”
—NENOPE, early reviewer