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Kenema - 16 August 2015

1. Ebola survivor Victoria Yillia holding her newborn baby son (who parents say they expect to name Barnabas) outside her home as husband Anthony Yillia looks on

2. Mid of mother and baby

3. Close of baby

4. Close of mother

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Kenema - 11 August 2015

5. SOUNDBITE: (Krio) Victoria Yillia, Ebola survivor: (explaining how she contracted Ebola when in maternity ward in 2014) "A woman came from outside and she died (of Ebola). The nurse who was treating that woman was the same nurse who was treating me, and she died herself, so that is how I came in contact with the Ebola disease."

6. People in a busy market

7. Wide exterior of maternity unit at Kenema hospital

8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Elizabeth Kamara, Deputy Matron, Kenema Hospital:

"Victoria Yillia, she is the first survivor and she delivered a live baby boy so that makes it very sensitive because everybody wants to know, because most of the survivors give birth to stillborn (babies). So, Victoria's case is very interesting."

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Kenema - 16 August 2015

9. Victoria and husband Anthony entering church for a blessing ceremony for baby

10. Wide of parents flanking pastor at blessing ceremony for baby

11. Close of baby wrapped in blankets in pastor's arms

12. Mid of the Yillias singing at church service

13. Close of Victoria singing while holding baby

14. The Yillias leaving church with other members of congregation

15. SOUNDBITE: (English) Anthony Yillia, father:

"Happy to be a father, to be a young couple and having the baby boy, he will serve as a foundation and a source of comfort to his mother and a foundation to me so that he will grow and continue to live a better life."

16. Mother and child

17. SOUNDBITE: (English) Anthony Yillia, father:

"He is an historical child and he will serve as history to always remind of all that has happen and we pray that he will become a success."

18. Mother Victoria walks with baby in arms

Ebola did not take Victoria Yillia's life. And it could not prevent the birth of her son.

Victoria delivered her child just a few minutes' walk from the ward where just last year she had hovered between life and death, and nurses and medical staff still wore full protective suits and masks for fear of any lingering infection.

Doctors gave her formula and told her not to nurse her baby until they ran tests to be sure there were no traces of the virus in her breast milk.

Her husband Anthony beamed in the maternity ward as they talked about names for the boy nestled in a blanket with a yellow knit cap.

But Victoria was sorrowful: Her mother was not here to help her, to show her what to do with her first child. Nor was her grandmother, or her three older sisters.

The couple and their new baby are all that remain: Twenty-one of her family members died of Ebola when the virus ripped through this corner of Sierra Leone.

Victoria is not just her family's sole survivor - she was also the first person to survive Ebola in Sierra Leone.

Her survival was celebrated nationally: She met the president, and the day of her release, June 8, is now National Survivors Day.

If she is the face of survival in Sierra Leone, it is fitting that her life of hope and sorrow mirrors that of an Ebola-ravaged country struggling to move on, despite its anguish.

When she fell pregnant in 2014, the first weeks of her pregnancy were fraught with complications.

Victoria had no way of knowing that a nurse who treated her had also come into contact with someone who'd attended a funeral in Guinea - and brought the deadly Ebola virus across the border.

She lost the baby in late May 2014 just as she was nearing the end of her first trimester, and she was sent to the maternity ward in Kenema where her husband studied.

It was there doctors determined she was suffering from more than a miscarriage. The 20-year-old had Ebola.

Meanwhile, back home in her village other family members began falling sick.

Victoria lost her parents, grandmother and her three older sisters to Ebola.

After her much-publicised discharge from the hospital, she returned to her village to recover away from the attention.

With her was Sia, her mother-in-law, who also survived because she was in Kenema with Victoria when everyone else fell ill.

Their reconstituted family also included a 3-year-old relative named Bintu who had lost her parents and her siblings to Ebola.

Victoria looked after the little girl while Anthony went back to school.

When Victoria discovered she was pregnant again, she was surprised, she said.

Doctors had said there was no way of knowing if she could even carry a child to term after having Ebola.

For reasons not yet known, other survivors have suffered miscarriages or had stillborn babies, said nurse matron Elizabeth B.M. Kamara at the Kenema hospital.

In the end, Victoria's labour was rather ordinary. Her son arrived on a Sunday, a healthy 6 pounds, 3 ounces (2.8 kilograms).

Like any new mother, she was nervous about holding her child, all the more so because health officials wanted to run more tests before letting her sleep with the baby or nurse him.

On Thursday, she left the hospital and headed to the room where she, her husband, her mother-in-law and little Bintu now live.

The following Sunday should have been the child's naming ceremony _ an event that takes place on the seventh day after birth, typically a joyous occasion bringing together the extended family.

But Victoria and Anthony put the celebration off, given their circumstances.

Nonetheless, on the insistence of their pastor, the baby was blessed in the local church.

They will name the child Barnabas - a Biblical name that often translates as the son of encouragement or consolation.

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