Friday, April 19, 2013

She comes for a family planning education session, after listening to the nurse for an hour, she decides that she should may be try using one  of the methods because she had her last baby so soon and she wouldn't want to go through another child birth experience again. She waits patiently for her turn as she breastfeeds her four months old baby. When it's her turn, the nurse gives her a small container and instructs her to bring some urine to run tests. The stick is dipped in the tin and after a few minutes, two pink lines show and the nurse calls her back to giver her the results. The results showed she was pregnant with her ninth child.

She ponders this and then asks the nurse if he is sure about the results. He says yes. After murmuring a little thanks, she walks out and starts her journey home but a million thoughts are running through her head. She already has 8 children and does not want another child. May be if her husband was able to provide enough food for them, may be if they had a piece of land and  were not renting on someone else's  land, may be then she would not have minded another child, may be if she didn't have to go through nine months of carrying a child and then trying to work hard to feed the others. She finally makes peace with being pregnant and hopes that things will get better.

The labor pains begin one night but she has to wait until the morning because the medical people at the nearest health centre do not work at night. Early in the morning,she sits on a boda with her close neighbour because her husband has to stay home with the other kids, the ride is long and bumpy but she tries to be strong. At the health centre, she labors for hours untill the nurse decides she needs to go to a hospital. At the hosptial, a C-section is done and she gives birth to a beautiful baby boy but she is bleeding so much and the doctors try their best to save her life but it seems that that hope and life won't cooperate.

She knows she is not going to make it and as the breath slowly leaves her body ,she asks to see her son . As she is holding him, tears start rolling down her eyes because she knows she will never be able to see her son grow up, she knows he will probably not have a better life, she knows her husband will struggle bringing up these chidlren on his own and probably because she never got to say good bye to him. She looks deep in his eyes and murmurs a simple prayer and that she is sorry.

She becomes one of the numerous women who have died in child birth.
 

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