adminFOR Patience Muchineripi, a 30-year-old Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services officer, life could not have blessed her any better.
She gave birth to quadruplets last week and she has rightly described it as a miracle for her young family.
After all, the scan had initially shown three kids.
But, when she delivered her babies, they were four – three boys and one girl.
They were all delivered through a Caesarean section at Claybank Hospital in Gweru on Wednesday last week.
Patience is married to Anesu Mukutotsi, who is also a prison warden, stationed in Kwekwe.
There is no doubt that while the quadruplets are a blessing to the family, they also come with a burden, which their mother highlighted to the nation.
“We need better accommodation, care givers (maids), clothing and blankets for both the kids and helpers,” she told this newspaper.
“Food, like porridge, peanut butter, formula milk for the infants, health care and diapers for the kids are needed.”
Even her uncle, Musekiwa Hute, also highlighted the need for the young family to be helped.
“We are all excited, but we want her to get some help raising the kids,” he said.
The excitement is not only limited to Patience and her close family members.
Even the images, which have been shared from the hospital, show that all the nurses were happy that the quadruplets had been safely delivered.
There is no doubt that this comes with a huge financial burden on the parents, who also have a six-year-old child.
On their own, they will certainly struggle to ensure that their newly-born babies get everything they want at this crucial early phase of their lives.
This is where we have always shown that, as a nation, we are a caring people and, in such special circumstances, we usually come together to support our colleagues.
That is why we have joined the appeal, on behalf of Patience and her family, for individuals and corporate organisations to come on board and help them.
It’s not every day that we celebrate the delivery of quadruplets, which means that this is a special thing, which has just happened.
That is why they have been receiving a fair amount of media coverage because it’s something that doesn’t happen often.
It’s very likely that Patience and her husband were probably planning on having one kid, their second born, and had that happened, they wouldn’t have needed a begging bowl to raise that child.
But, where they expected to be blessed once, they have been blessed four times at once, and that comes with a heavy burden, in terms of taking care of the kids.
Some other parents would have chosen to stick with their pride and give an impression that they have the means to foot the big cost that comes with raising these four babies.
But, Patience did the right thing and for that resources should be pooled to ensure that she gets a helping hand to take care of these beautiful flowers.
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter