WeeklySA_AdminBOUNCY:Woman delivers baby at rural police station
By Frank Maponya
More than 4 500 women have delivered babies before they could arrive healthcare facilities in Limpopo during the 2020/2021 financial year.
This is due to the fact that some clinics, mostly situated in rural areas, do not operate on a 24-hour basis. Highly expectant mothers would deliver their children either at their homes, inside public or private transports, or at some police stations. Spokesperson for the provincial department of health Neil Shikwambana has revealed that a total of 4 548 women delivered their babies before reaching healthcare facilities in the previous financial year.
“As a department we are disturbed that 4 548 women during the 2020/2021 financial year delivered babies before arrival at our facilities,” said Shikwambana.
He further advised pregnant women to book for ante-natal clinics before they reached 20 weeks of their pregnancies. During ante-natal visits, Shikwambana said, midwives usually advised pregnant women on their expected date of delivery. They also asked pregnant women about the facilities at which they would want to deliver their babies.
“This is done so that the pregnant women can choose amongst facilities providing 24-hour services, in case those closer to their homes do not work for 24 hours,” he explained.
According to him, pregnant women were also asked about the transport mode they would use to the delivery facility, adding that ambulances were meant for emergencies only.
“Therefore we cannot plan on using those ambulances,” he said.
He said it was”unfortunate” that the department’s survey had proven that majority of women who had delivered babies at home or before arrival at healthcare facilities had failed to comply with advice offered them at the clinics.
“Unless pregnant women and their next-of-kin heeded the advice they received at ante-natal clinics, the problem which put both their lives and those of their babies at risk would persist,” he warned.
The department’s reaction follows an incident in which a 22-year-old woman gave birth at the Roedtan Police Station outside Modimolle on Sunday, with the assistance of two police officers.
The woman allegedly had nowhere to go as the local clinic was closed and only operated on weekdays. The woman was forced to approach the police station for assistance. Two police officers, a female sergeant and male constable, became instant heroes after they helped the heavily-pregnant woman to deliver a new-born baby girl inside the station’s boardroom.
Shikwambana said clinics normally closed during the weekends due to a number of factors, including nurses having nowhere to sleep in the clinics. The other factor, he said, was the problem of numbers.
“It has come to our attention that the clinic in the Roedtan area records a low number of patients on a daily basis, resulting in us not being able to open the facility for so few people on a 24-hour basis,” he said, adding that nurses would rather refer the patients to a local healthcare facility where their colleagues had proper structures to render both medical services and to sleep over when they worked for 24-hours.
According to police spokesperson Colonel Moatshe Ngoepe, it was at around 1.30pm when the woman arrived at the station’s community service centre complaining about labour pains. He said the baby was delivered with the help of Sergeant Nkang Winner Mogoru and Constable Kleinbooi Solomon Mnisi, promptly assisted the young mother in distress to give birth.
