An unusual and touching story was recorded in Bogusici near Gorazde, where midwife Sefika Tanjo, in her house that was turned into a maternity ward during the war from 1992 to 1995, delivered as many as 76 babies.
Although in inhumane conditions, all the babies survived, and today they are adults, successful people who affectionately call Sefika a war heroine. Their midwife now lives in the United States (U.S.), and they used her visit to Bogusici for a symbolic gesture – they placed a plaque on the house that served as a wartime maternity ward as a sign of gratitude.
Amela Ratkovic was the first to give birth to a healthy baby at the beginning of June ’92 with Sefika’s skilled hands. It was her idea to place a plaque on the house, a kind of wartime maternity ward, in honor of midwife Sefika.
“We were at a gathering and talking about everything when Amela Ratkovic initiated this – that we, as a local community and the children she helped bring into the world, do something like this. We made a commemorative plaque as a sign of gratitude, and it’s very little compared to what she did for us,” said Amel Begovic from the Bogusici Local Community.
A gesture of gratitude
Because in the most inhumane conditions and under the rubble of war, life was being born. Thanks to midwife Sefika, who delivered babies without an operating room or instruments, but with vast knowledge and a big heart.
Ajla Bukva, now Dedic, was born in the midst of war, on January 12th, 1993. Her mother, Senada, remembers the wartime maternity ward and the deliveries performed by midwife Sefika. Senada is now a proud grandmother because Ajla is the mother of three children, but in that wartime ’93, Senada feared whether Ajla would survive at all.
“Sefika would turn her living room into a maternity ward in ten minutes; births mostly took place there, although it also happened in a car or in other places, but most of the children were born there. It was a damned war; we had no electricity, no water, no sanitary conditions. Everything was so hard and emotional,” recalls Senada Bukva.
Amina Krajisnik and her brother Alem are the only twins born in Bogusici during the war, which was a special moment despite the evil looming over this place. After so much time, Amina met her midwife for the first time.
“This is a contribution from all of us for this woman who gave her all. When I think of all the effort and struggle it took, she helped the mothers with all her heart and soul. She only wanted the children to be born alive and healthy. And all of us are alive and healthy today thanks to her, and we are endlessly grateful to our heroine Sefika,” says Amina Krajisnik.
To Sefika, all 76 children she delivered during the war are “her children,” whom she speaks of with special emotion, recalling events from the war when she used an iron heated on coals as a sterilizer.
Hope born 76 times
“I didn’t care whether I was allowed to stitch a wound, whether I had an injection, whether I had gauze – I sterilized with an iron on coals. Of my 76 babies, not one navel got infected, and I also worked in the service; there were times I didn’t sleep for four days,” said Sefika.
Without sleep and often without rest, Sefika, despite the harsh circumstances, greeted new life with a smile in a time of death. Those who know her often say that in the darkest days, midwife Sefika gave birth to hope 76 times.
Each birth, she says, is a special story that could be turned into a film. However, one remains especially etched in her memory.
“Our commander Zaim, may he rest in peace, brought a girl who was pregnant. I love her very much; if she ever sees this somewhere, I hope she reaches out. They brought her and left her with me, and when she gave birth, there was no one to come pick her up. I was her mother. She stayed with me for 17 days,” Sefika says through tears.
Sefika is not only a war heroine, but also a heroine in peacetime, as the residents of this settlement like to say. Supporting this is the fact that just six months ago, she definitively beat lung cancer, which was her most important victory in life.
Photo: RTVBPK
