Woman forced to deliver baby in hospital toilet
An expectant woman identified as Tiyanjane Nasio of Mapila Village in the area of Traditional Authority Njolomore in Ntcheu, Wednesday morning gave birth to twins, the first baby was delivered in a toilet while the second baby was born in the hospital at Ntcheu District Hospital.
The guardian of the woman, Fonika Kapachika whilst sobbing in an interview said Tiyanjane Nasio decided to deliver in the toilet allegedly after being asked to get out of maternity ward to pave way for the cleaning exercise in preparation for a visit by the Deputy Minister of Health, Halima Daudi to the hospital.
The incident was also corroborated by a group of expectant women who were waiting for delivery at the hospital saying almost all expectant women were chased from the maternity ward for the cleaning exercise.
“Some women heard groaning of the woman and crying of the baby in the toilet and when they followed up, they discovered Nasio who had already given birth after which one of the hospital attendants arrived at the site of the incident and picked the patient into the hospital, saying the delivery process was not complete as Nasio was yet to deliver a twin baby,” said Kapachika.
According to the women, most of the expectant women who had already delivered and some in-patients were also chased away from the hospital, a development which they said had tremendously disappointed them.
The development did not go down well with the women who expressed big surprise at the attitude shown by the hospital management to chase the women from the maternity ward especially when government was nowadays encouraging expectant women to seek help and deliver at health clinics
“These days, government is advocating for safe motherhood and we are complying with that by coming here to wait until we deliver and what management of this hospital did was unusual. They normally are able to determine the time an expectant woman would deliver. We hope such decisions will be avoided in future after this terrible incident,” complained the women.
The women said that was the second time for an expectant woman to give birth in toilet at the same hospital within three weeks.
When contacted, Ntcheu District Hospital Medical Officer, Dr Ammba Majidu and the District Nursing Officer, Bertha Chikuse confirmed the incident adding that the woman had also delivered a twin baby and that Nasio was in theatre but did not divulge more information saying investigations surrounding the incident were under way.
But transmitted reports on Zodiak Broadcasting Corporation (ZBS) said the Nasio had just arrived at the hospital, adding that she was not yet given a bed in the maternity ward.
