Hertta-Maria Amutenja
Anna Timoteus, 24, asserts that the staff at the maternity ward at Katutura Hospital mistreated and victimised her while she was in labour and after she lost her three-day-old baby.
Timoteus who went into labour on 7 June, gave birth on 9 June 2023. However, her son, who was born with hypoxic-ischaemicencephalopathy (HIE) and weighed 3.6 kilograms, passed away three days later. When a baby is born with HIE, their brain does not receive enough oxygen or blood flow.
“My water broke around 20hOO on 7 June and called for an ambulance immediately. When I got to the hospital, I was told by a nurse to wait outside. While I was waiting, I was going through labour pains. I assume there were other ladies they were busy with. That same night, a nurse also measured the opening of my cervix and I was told it was two centimeters then. I was then admitted the next day and that morning another nurse came into the room and measured the width of my cervix and it was about three centimetres,” she said.
A first-time mother, Timoteus claims the nurses, midwives, and doctors shouted at her and had no compassion.
She claims that while she was in labour, a staff member rudely informed her that her baby was not doing well and that his head had become larger while she was on a transducer and measuring her cervix.
“On the same day, in the afternoon, a different doctor or a midwife came in with a student nurse, they checked my cervix again and then put me on a transducer. She then just shouted at me that my baby is not doing well and that his head was swollen. I did not think of it as a serious situation,” she narrated.
After two days in labour, she said she went into the labour room where she described the staff as being bad-mannered.
“At first, I did not think of it as a serious situation. I thought it was perhaps because my cervix is tight. On 9 June, around 15h00, I was measured again and I was about eight centimetres. I went to the labour room and I attempted to push but I didn’t manage. They kept telling me to push and I couldn’t. I was really trying and this was my first baby I also didn’t know what was going on. They then took me to the theatre room and remember them giving me a form to sign. While I was signing the form a nurse comes in and rudely said I have the strength to sign for theatre forms and write my name but i do not have the strength to push my baby out,” Timoteus narrated.
“Theater is very complicated. This one needs to push her baby out herself. Her legs are so stiff. Push your baby out, if you don’t do it no one will push your baby out for you,” a nurse reportedly said.
After the birth and while her baby was getting treated at the premature ward, the staff kept making hurtful comments, Timoteus added.
“After freshening up I enquired to see my baby. I went to the premature unit and found nurses there and asked her if his head would recover. This was because I could see my baby’s head was swollen.
Her response to me was, you are worried about the head while your bay is not doing okay. They were telling you to push but you were just speaking English and making a noise,” she said. She further alleged a nurse rereferred to her baby as a vegetable.
“On 11 June, while I was checking up on my baby who was still in the premature unit, I found another nurse who was telling me that I did not want to push the baby out and it was my fault that he was in that condition.
She went on to say that the more we do that the more vegetable babies we get. I can never forget these words,” she said. Executive Director of the Ministry of Health and Social Services, Ben Nangombe said it could be true that such treatment was given to a mother who was in labour but it is against the values as an institution. “Our mission is to provide public health care services that are accessible but also delivered in the most compassionate manner. Patients come mostly when they are in vulnerable situations and our task is to make sure their experience in health facilities is that they are dealt with in a compassionate and caring manner,” he said. He said if one is subjected to treatment that is too painful to bear, the people who were involved need to be brought to book.
“We do not condone such behaviour. For a mother to lose her baby it is a very painful thing and compassion is needed,” he added.
