•SOME women dump their babies immediately after giving birth.

By MIRIAM ZIMBA –

“WHEN relatives  and friends get together, they usually talk  about their children or being pregnant. These are the moments when I feel extremely isolated.
“So often, people do not respect you if you dont have children.  I have overheard other women talking about us as being cursed.”
This is  the feeling of an identified women who has had no child since she got married 15 years ago.
Many infertile women consider  life without children to be  hopeless.
In many cultures, childless women suffer discrimination, stigma and ostracism.
In the olden days some were banned from attending ceremonies like funerals but this is not case today.
Some women, couples and families fast for months or have over night prayers in a bid to have a child while others resort to dumping this treasured gift in the worst of all places- a pit latrine.
However, ordinarily, the birth of a child is a momentous occasion characterised by jubilation regardless of the circumstance under which the child is born.
Unfortunately, not all new mothers and would be mothers gladly living up to the congratulatory messages that follow suit.
For some women, the confirmation of a pregnancy is the beginning of agony- leaving them wondering why it could not have occurred at a more opportune time. These types pregnancies are called unwanted or unplanned pregnancies by social scientists.
There have been numerous media reports on these unplanned or unwanted pregnancies, many of which have ended up tragically.
Not too long ago, an unknown woman of Chingola’s Kapisha Township dumped a two-day-old baby at a dumpsite.
The  bouncy baby girl, weighing about 3.2 kilogrammes was discovered wrapped in a sack by passersby who heard her crying.
It was then that the passersby took the baby to Kabundi clinic where it was examined by clinical officers and found to be in good health.
Still on the Copperbelt, the Ndola High Court is on record of having discharged a 24 year old woman who was convicted of attempting to kill her baby by dumping it in a pit latrine.
According to facts before the court, Dorothy Kumwenda of Ndola’s Mushili Township gave birth while answering the call of nature in a pit latrine outside her house, and she decided to dump the new born infant in the pit latrine.
This baby was discovered by somebody who informed the police before it was retrieved and rushed to a health centre for medical attention.
This, was of course, after the infant was heard crying in the lavatory.
In some cases, women have been convicted by the courts of law for such ruthless practices.
One such case is that of a 37-year-old woman who was sentenced by the Kitwe Magistrate court to  two years simple imprisonment for child concealing and dumping the body of the infant in a the crocodile infested Kafue River.
The named woman, a maid of Kitwe’s Chipata Township concealed the birth of her baby, she wrapped it in a chitenge material and plastic bag, before dumping it in the river.
Sadly, many infants have had their lives prematurely cut  in similar circumstances.
In cases where they are not discovered in good time, they have died very  painful deaths, without their plight ever being known.
Griselda Mutale of Lusaka’s Chilulu Township attributes the dumping of infants to unplanned pregnancies largely among adolescent and un-married women.
Ms Mutale, who condemned such acts said  women who dumped their children did not  deserve a place in society.
“These women are simply evil. How does someone just decide to dump an innocent baby in that manner? Imagine a newborn being dumped in a pit latrine,” she lamented.
She believes that women who dump infants deserve the worst punishment that can ever be meted out .
“These women deserve to be stoned to death. We cannot have women go scot free after dumping innocent souls,” she said.
On the other end are women who would give up absolutely anything to have a feel of the joys and fulfillment of motherhood.
It is no secret that a lot of women have sought all kinds of unthinkable solutions to their childlessness, some of which are highly embarrassing.
After having exhausted both professional and unprofessional advice, a lot of women have resorted to seeking solace from witchdoctors.
Many of these women have had to endure the most humiliating forms of sacrifice, which may sometimes include having sexual relations with the witchdoctor.
Others have been told to look for artifacts which are next to impossible to find which should be used in rituals to help them achieve their  goal of having a child.
There have also been media reports of women who have gone to the extent of stealing other people’s babies.
“We have heard how a lot of women have connived with some health personnel to swap or indeed steal new born infants from hospitals,” Mr Mutale said.
Goshon Kasanda, an obstetrician and gyneacology senior registrar at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) said the reason why some women dump their babies cannot be established.
“Many of these women do not disclose the reason they do this, largely because it is human nature to become defensive when under attack,” he said.
Dr Kasanda however  said in most cases, the women claimed not to have known that they were in labour, especially  for first time mothers.
“They tell us that they would feel the urge to use the toilet, and whilst answering the call of nature, they give birth in the process, but this of course is very difficult to ascertain” he explained.
From a medical perspective, Dr Kasanda attributed this behaviour to a disorder known as post-partum depression.
“This condition means that after some women deliver, they may suffer some form of depression which we call pipro-psychosis-meaning that they could become very elated by the birth of the baby, or depressed,” he said.
These are psychotic illnesses which can lead to the woman not to have the psych or reason, and can cause one to dump the baby or even kill the baby.
“So, the women who have dumped babies need psychiatric assessment to establish their mental state and rule out any psychological or psychotic disorders such as psychosis depression,” he added.
Dr Kasanda also explained that the levels of psychosis vary, and that while for others the condition may be very severe, others suffer from mild forms of psychosis.
However, dumping of infants is largely associated with social problems which may not favour women who fall victim of unplanned or unwanted pregnancies.
Despite efforts to scale-up the up-take of conventional contraceptives as a way of delaying conception and birth control, people have continued engaging in sexual activities.
Many women who fall victim of unplanned pregnancies engage in risky sexual behaviour not entirely for procreation, but largely for pleasure.
However, in many instances, these illicit sexual encounters have gone beyond mere pleasure and have resulted in unplanned pregnancies.
Dr Kasanda explained that most women who fall victim of unplanned pregnancies usually consider terminating the pregnancy as an alternative.
“However, in the event that efforts to terminate the pregnancy proves futile, they still carry the pregnancy to full term, but with no intention of keeping the baby,” he explained.
Many of these women try by all means to conceal the pregnancy, so that when they give birth, they simply dump the infant, and try to move on with their lives.
This is usually the case with many under privileged women, in comparison to those with regular incomes and supportive family systems.
In Dr Kasanda’s view, one of the most effective ways to combat this social ill is to scale-up the use of contraception among sexually active women in order to avoid unplanned pregnancies.
Even as Government moves towards promoting safe maternal health through increased use of contraceptives, it is highly debatable if this ambitious goal will bee achieved.
This is because the people who  need these services the most are mostly adolescent girls in schools, and currently Government has not embraced the use of contraception or condoms in schools.
Another group of women who are at  high risk are the socially excluded women in remote areas of the country.
These have no access to reproductive health services.
For as long as these gaps are not addressed, cases of women dumping infants will be with us for a long time to come.