It was about 2:45pm when Yahsmen Kamal Kokroko was born at the Amoah Hospital at Ablekuma in Accra.

“The baby was not crying. She was silent,” her mother, Salamatu Adams, recalled the events of October 21, 2021.

Midwives and parents often anticipate a baby’s first cry in the labour ward because it signals a newborn’s ability to breathe on its own. But, about four hours after her birth, Yahsmen did not cry.

It was the most devastating period for the first-time mother, Salamatu Adams, and her husband, Kamal-deen Kokroko.

Salamatu watched frightfully as the midwife wrapped Yahsmen in a cot sheet screaming “Jesus, Jesus”.