Indonesian mother ‘grateful’ after emergency birth during 7.7-magnitude quake

While the earth shook around her, tearing apart homes, buildings, and bridges in eastern Indonesia, Maria Florida Nogo Kelen was giving birth to her daughter.

The 39-year-old went in for emergency surgery as a 7.7-magnitude earthquake and aftershocks ravaged the East Nusa Tenggara province, the country’s worst disaster since 2022, fighting off the tremors and her declining health to deliver her fourth child.

“During the surgery I was not afraid,” said Kelen, who lives in the region of Nagekeo, close to the quake’s epicentre. “I had to be healthy for my kids.”

Her delivery came two months ahead of schedule due to a complicated pregnancy that posed risks for mother and child, forcing doctors to use flashlights to perform the surgery during intermittent power outages as the hospital building shook mercilessly. Her doctors said Kelen could have suffered from a fatal seizure had they delayed the birth.

“We had no choice,” said her obstetrician, Yona Sara Pardede. “We were afraid. The surgery was difficult as she was a small baby. I asked God to help us. We don’t have a ventilator.”

Her daughter Gempita was named after the Indonesian word for earthquake. “Gempa”.

Saturday’s disaster, the country’s deadliest since a 2022 quake killed hundreds in West Java, has so far killed 54 people across the East Nusa Tenggara province.

Many medical professionals across Indonesia’s southernmost province treated people with injuries in tents as the quake damaged hundreds of hospitals and homes.

On Monday, rescuers scoured the area for people feared trapped under rubble and were sending aid via aeroplanes, authorities said.

Residents sheltered in evacuation tents, with several saying they needed clean water and food. Most were afraid to return to their homes for fear of aftershocks.

Born at 1.3kg during aftershocks, Gempita remained stable in an incubator placed on grass in a tent as the sun beat down on Nagekeo.

Kelen, who suffered a haemorrhage after her birth, said she was grateful to be alive.

“I was very grateful for the doctors. Even when the room had collapsed, they did not abandon us.”