Not As Precious

Does anyone ever want something so bad, do anything just to get this thing they want and still let it slip through their fingers so easily? 

Let me make it clearer, do you know any woman who would  pray for and want a child so bad but when she finallybecomes pregnant , she would be so careless with the pregnancy till she loses the baby?

 It seems like an impossibility, but today I'd tell you the story of a 40 year old woman who waited 8 years to have a child, but lost the precious baby to extreme carelessness.

One Saturday I was in labor ward, it was a calm shift till this woman came in. I was resting in the nurses room as there were no patients intially but her cries brought me out.  Curious me wanted to find out why a woman was crying in the labour room (it wasn't the usual shouting that follows labour pain). I came out to a doctor and some nurses scolding and consoling her at the same time. 

Why would you scold and console a woman in labour at the same time you'd probably ask. Here's why - This woman had waited 8 years to have a child, at last she became pregnant but refused to come for antenatal clinic visits.  It still beats me and is seemingly hard to believe. One would expect that the hospital would become her second house , knowing how long she waited and how precious the child was to her. Apparently the child was not as precious. Or maybe the theory of value was at play. "Before you get something, it's most valuable; when you get it , it becomes just another thing you have; when you lose it ,the value  triples! I personally never thought it would  apply to child 🤷🤷 I guess I'm wrong actually.  

Oh I forgot to add that the woman was a known hypertensive patient. See she knew she was battling with high blood pressure and it still didn't push her to the hospital.  See just show me a better scenario of "village , people running things"

At some point , it was suggested that a caeserian section be done (operation) to bring out the dead baby as there was no progress but luckily for her , a  senior doctor insisted she have the baby vaginally. 

Few hours later she was ready to push and I was the only  nurse there  so I had to take the delivery.  The baby came out, dead of course as expected. Not just dead, deader than dead, yellowish and foul smelling (the whole labour room was smelling terribly), skin was almost decaying with the ribs almost visible. It was a gory sight 😰😰.

The woman, she kept asking me amidst tears to rub the baby so it could cry, "pikin wey I suffer for" she kept repeating. Her cry had entered a higher gear, louder and sadder.

Her cry brought my Matron in , we wrapped the dead new born and discarded 😭 (the sound of discarded for a new born) it was too painful.

To make matters worse , placenta refused to come out and she was bleeding. That was fixed however but it was clear that the odds were not in her favour.

We cleaned her up, helped her rest , consoled her and offered support.  She kept brooding. I feel like she considered the baby a miracle child and felt that the miracle that  brought the child would sustain it till delivery.

I pray she becomes pregnant again , I'm too certain she'd be careful the next time.

Spread the word, antenatal visits are important , regardless of the situation. Too many ugly things can be avoided by visiting the doctor regularly.

Thank you for reading.

#DOYFN