Birth characteristics of Syrian refugees at a tertiary medical center in Istanbul, Turkey

Abstract

Introduction: The Syrian crisis, which started in March 2011, caused 5,163,650 people (as of August 2017) to become refugees, majority of them from Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey [1]. According to latest data, the number of Syrian refugees living in Turkey is 3,106,932.2 46.8% of these are females (0–4 years 6.6%, 5–11 years 8%, 12–17 years 6.8%, 18–59 years 23.6% and 60+ years 1.7%) [2]. As of August 2017, 224,750 Syrian babies have been born in Turkey [3]. Istanbul is one of four cities that have more than 300,000 Syrian refugees [4]. In this study, we aimed to draw a perspective on Syrian refugee births in our clinic in the most crowded city of Turkey, where Syrian refugees are concentrated.