This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center. MAICAO, Colombia – “ Empuja, vamos, empuja sostenido . Push, come on, keep pushing.”

The doctor chanted it like a mantra at Venezuelan migrant, Yulianis Rodriguez, from a delivery room in the northern Colombia-Venezuela border city of Maicao.

Rodriguez, 26, was alone in the hospital in May, with no one’s hand to squeeze and no epidural, nothing for the pain other than a bright yellow rag in her mouth to stop her from biting down on her tongue.

She crossed into Colombia months earlier through “trocha,” illegal dirt pathways run by criminal groups, with little more than her Venezuelan ID to her name. After living through Venezuela’s collapsing economy and food and medicine crises , the pregnant Venezuelan hoped she’d be able to get the medical care for her baby that she’d never be able to get in her own country.