The ManicaPost
Blessing Rwizi Post Correspondent
A MUTARE woman, suspected to be mentally-challenged, struggled with labour pains in full glare of an unconcerned public at Sakubva Musika on Tuesday, resulting in her delivering a macerated still birth. The unidentified woman was carrying a baby boy.
The Manica Post understands that had the woman received the life saving midwifery services on time, chances were that she could have delivered a live baby. However, she struggled alone with birth complications as men who were nearby shied away from rendering any assistance.
By the time some local women encircled her to render the critical midwifery services, the damage had already been done as she had delivered a macerated still birth. It is understood that the woman has been staying in the open at the vegetable market for months with nobody noticing the pregnancy. This means that the woman neither had the requisite ultrasound scan done nor the routine maternity healthcare visits to hospital to check for structural abnormalities in the baby.
However, the baby was in the normal delivery position, with the head closer to the birth canal, raising strong concerns that the baby could have been saved had the woman received attention on time.
“We do not know this woman. What we know is she has been wandering around the market for several months. We never knew she was pregnant until she went into labour this morning (Tuesday). That is when I alerted other women in the market that she was pregnant, after her bag of water fell. The unfortunate thing was that the pregnant woman kept her legs closed, instead of opening them and pushing the child. When she got into labour only men were around, and this made her shy to deliver normally, and we suspect this contributed to the death of the baby.
“Later on, I teamed up with a number of women to help her, but the assistance came late as she gave birth to a still birth,” said a vendor only identified as Mai Kurai. Sakubva Farm Produce chairperson, Mr Taurai Mukono blamed Mutare City ambulance services for failing to attend to the emergency incident on time.
“After realising that the woman was experiencing labour pains, I swiftly called the city council for an ambulance but they took long to respond to the emergency. If they had reacted swiftly and rushed to the scene on time the woman’s baby would have been saved,” said Mr Mukono. He added: “I would also like to blame men who watched the woman writhing in labour pains without offering any help.
“She might be mentally-challenged, but equally human like us and deserved any kind of help anyone was capable of rendering. In future we must treat such people in the same way we would like to be treated.”
