BIRTHS DON’T STOP IN A CRISIS: HOW A WOMAN WENT IN LABOUR AS CYCLONE FREDDY SLAMMED INTO MADAGASCAR

“We knew the delivery was imminent and that everything was going well... But we didn't know it was going to be today.” Georgette, a 26-year-old mother from Manakara in Madagascar, went into labour just as a powerful cyclone tore through her village. People living in areas at risk of destruction and landslides had been moved to safer ground and sturdier buildings well before the actual arrival of the cyclone: Five temporary shelters were set up to accommodate some 2,000 people in nearby Ambalavontaka, where Georgette, her mother and hundreds of other vulnerable people had taken refuge in a converted school compound.