Gathoni Wamuchomba narrates how she gave birth to her first baby inside the toilet in a private hospital at Nairobi in 2003.She narrated to The Standard during an interview a story full of emotions. “I was put in a private room when I reported in the hospital where I was injected with medicine to induce labour as I was waiting to be taken into the delivery room.” She says that at that moment she felt relieving herself in the toilet.
“I went to check the head nurse and told her that I wanted to relieve myself to the toilet. The nurse gave me a go ahead and as I was relieving myself the baby came out.
Wamuchomba who was a radio presenter back then, she says that she screamed and passed out. She feared that the baby will not be in a good environment in terms of health because she thought that the baby will be affected. By the time she regained consciousness the baby was luckily fine without any issues. The MP was speaking to The Standard on sidelines about an event meant to draw attention which was not known in public. The violence is termed as obstetric violence (OBV).
OBV is act by a healthcare worker which causes harm to someone who is pregnant or has given birth recently. The violence can be manifested through denial of treatment, forced medical intervention, rude treatment and also physical violence. Those who suffer the obstetric.. violence faces consequences such as sadness and feeling helpless.
Gathoni Muchomba Africa Foundation(GAMAFRICA) organized an event in conjunction with Kenya Woman Parliament Association(KEWOPA) where survivors of OBV shares their stories and how they get to manage it.
During the event one of the lady describe how her doctor forced her to undergo a caesarean which is a surgical procedure in which the baby is delivered instead of normal birth as she wished. “I later realized that I have been a fatality of obstetric violence,” Gathoni said.
Gynaecologist Anne-Beatrice Kihara elaborates OBV as a traumatic action to women at the stage of maternity. Undoubtedly no one can forget the January 2017 hashtag #nursefrom hell, which was all about unidentified group of nurses bragging over terrifying ways on how they handle women with difficulties when in the stage of delivery. In year 2016 the Ministry of Health, the Federation of Women Lawyers and the National Nurses federation of Kenya published data showing how one in five women giving birth in a local hospital gets to be disgraced and asked for brides in order to get services.
Wamuchomba narrates that, “Women are physically and verbally abused in the delivery wards. She explains that in the wards they are treated as if they know nothing for them to follow instructions that are given out by those attending to them .This normally affect a huge group of women but none of them speaks about it yet it is wrong. Dr.Kihara said,” A lot of OBV appear because of the healthcare system not functioning properly.
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