Female Colombian guerrilla fighters who gave birth while fighting for the rebels are struggling to search for their children five years later.

The women who demobilized from the Revolutionary armed forces of Colombia (FARC) have been searching for the children they were forced to abandon -- because it was considered insubordination to become pregnant, according to the BBC.

The Colombian Agency for Reintegration (ACR), 47,348 former rebels are reintegrating, and a total of 56,000 have left the rebel groups in the past 11 years, according to Colombia Reports.

About 7,000 of them are women according to the BBC.

One woman, whom the BBC named Maria, told the news network she wanted to have shared custody or at least be able to visit her child. At first, she was able to reach out to the child's adopted mother but phone calls have not been returned since.

Colombian officials said some of the children who were found and taken by their birth mothers were killed.

The process to find these children is complicated since most women often do not know where to start the search.

When the women first found out they were pregnant with their partner's children, some tried to hide it. Late-term abortions were not uncommon, but the women sometimes died in the process.

Maria said she was able to hide it and the commanders decided not to force her into the late term abortion. But after giving birth she gave up her daughter because deserting the group wasn't an option, she told BBC.

Another woman, whom the BBC called Carmen, had been pregnant more than 20 years ago, before it was banned, and said she was able to see her son for some time before she lost contact.

"You can't be in the field with children -- they are the ones who suffer most," she said.

After she demobilized, she was helped by a government program to find her son again.

It's in the government's interests to help mothers locate their children, according to the BBC.