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A32 FEATURE
Tuesday 19 November 2019
No training, no gloves: Zimbabwe’s desperate childbirths

By FARAI MUTSAKA space, water and protec-
Associated Press tive clothing. I need help,
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) and fast,” she told a team
— When her contractions of senior health officials
became unbearably pain- who visited on Saturday.
ful, 18-year-old Persever- She told them she had de-
ance Kanyoza rushed to a livered 15 babies overnight
maternity hospital in Zim- and seven more before
babwe’s capital, Harare. lunchtime.
But the doors were closed One birth caused a brief
amid a weekslong strike by scare. The baby popped
public health workers. With out but seemed lifeless.
no money for private care, Some in the room held their
panic set in. breath. Others screamed
A hospital guard directed and the mother began to
her to a tiny apartment in cry. Gwena splashed wa-
the poor suburb of Mbare ter on the baby’s forehead
nearby. The midwife: a and the child let out a cry.
grandmother with no for- “She is so big,” one woman
mal training and claiming exclaimed, joining others in
to be guided by the Holy cleaning a pool of blood
Spirit. from plastic that would
Thirteen hours later, Kan- 72-year old grandmother Esther Zinyoro Gwena is seen in her a tiny apartment in the poor sur- be reused later. “Through-
yoza gave birth to a healthy burb of Mbare in Harare, Zimbabwe, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2019. out Harare there are a
baby girl. Associated Press lot of traditional birth at-
“It was a miracle,” she told pay than the roughly $100 ment. When the AP visited bucket, blanket and bag. tendants,” he said. “If you
The Associated Press with they receive a month, and on Saturday, four pregnant Less than two hours later, go to our clinics right now
a beaming smile. “I feared nurses and midwives in Ha- women writhed in pain the number of pregnant they are empty. Where
for the worst. I didn’t know rare walked off the job two while sitting on blankets women had swelled to 10, are these women going
what to do after finding the weeks ago. on the floor in the tiny liv- their bags piled in a corner. to? They are now coming
hospital closed.” Since then, Gwena said, ing room-turned-maternity More stood in line in the to deliver here. There are
Her baby was one of doz- she has delivered more ward. The bedroom is now hallway outside. no follow-ups when these
ens delivered in the past than 100 babies and no the “recovery room” where “I was apprehensive,” said women have delivered. It’s
week alone with the help mothers have died. She several women holding Grace Musariri, one of the really worrying.”
of 72-year-old Esther Zin- doesn’t charge for her ser- newborn babies huddled women in line. “But I have “There is no proper man-
yoro Gwena. She has be- vices and helping stranded on Gwena’s small bed. already seen four women agement of blood and
come a local hero as the pregnant women is her “They need the bed more,” leaving with their babies in blood products,” he said.
southern African country’s concern. she said. “I rarely get time the few hours I was here. “After birth, what happens?
worst economic crisis in “I never trained as a mid- to sleep, they are always The fear is gone.” There are certain processes
more than a decade is wife. I started by befriend- coming in … in the middle The makeshift maternity that need to happen dur-
forcing desperate women ing pregnant women at of the night.” ward contained little but ing labor and after labor
to seek out traditional birth the church and then eight Neighbors, relatives of the boxes of cotton and gloves both to the mother and to
attendants who often de- years ago I just started de- pregnant women and donated by President Em- the child. These are now
liver babies using their bare livering babies. It is the holy some of Gwena’s children, merson Mnangagwa’s missed opportunities.”
hands with no sterilization spirit,” she said. who help clean the blood, wife, Auxillia, who visited on Those include helping to
or post-natal care. “I have had no rest since fetch water from a nearby Friday after Gwena’s story prevent HIV transmission
Some worried Zimbabwe- the nurses’ strike started. well and cook, sat on a made headlines in Zimba- from mother to child.
ans say Gwena’s work only The work is becoming too bench. Others stood in the bwe’s state media. The health director added,
highlights the collapse of a much for one person. I am packed room. Before her visit “I used my “I am really depressed, to
health sector once regard- even losing weight,” Gwe- “Make way, another one bare hands,” Gwena said. say the least. Something
ed as one of the best in na said. is coming,” one woman She asks women to bring needs to be done. This
Africa. Doctors have been She said she has been de- shouted. A heavily preg- their own razor blades, cord is not the way to deliver
on strike for more than two livering up to 20 babies a nant young woman walked clamps and other items. health services in an urban,
months, seeking better day in her two-room apart- in carrying a small plastic “My biggest challenges are local authority.” He told
Gwena he would put in a
word with his bosses to pro-
vide her with more gloves,
cord clamps, sterile linens
and other items.
The pregnant women
flooding Gwena’s apart-
ment are happy to receive
any assistance as state-
provided services either
become unavailable or
sharply deteriorate.
“Both my child and I could
have died had it not been
A pregnant woman waits in a passageway, waiting for her turn for Gogo (grandmother),”
Perseverance Kanyoza, left, shows her newly delivered baby, to deliver her baby, in a tiny apartment in the poor surburb of said Kanyoza, the new
after the birth in a tiny apartment in the poor suburb of Mbare in Mbare in Harare, Zimbabwe, in this Saturday, Nov. 16, 2019, with
Harare, Zimbabwe, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2019. the help of 72-year old grandmother Esther Zinyoro Gwena. mother, making her way
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