Chronicle Editor
Nontobeko Mlotshwa and Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday News Reporters
DESPITE giving birth to a healthy child only five days after she was sexually assaulted by unknown assailants that snuck into the maternity home at Maphisa District Hospital in Matobo District, Matabeleland South province and raped her together with another woman, one of the victims of that harrowing experience says she has now abandoned hopes of having a large family as the thought of being violated once again haunts her.
The woman was one of the three that were at the hospital waiting for their time of delivery when rapists ghosted into the home in the early hours of 7 July and raped two of them while the other managed to escape unharmed.
Women who are at least eight months pregnant in rural areas move into waiting homes in hospitals as they await delivery. This is meant to ensure timely medical care as transportation might be an issue on the day of delivery from some remote areas.
Narrating the events of that fateful Wednesday early morning to Sunday News, the new mother said the trio had left the windows open in those wee hours as they wanted to get some fresh air into the room. She said their compatriot that had escaped only survived by sheer luck, as the rapists were afraid they would be identified when early morning light started streaking into the maternity home.
“There were three of us in that room that early morning and we had opened the windows for fresh air but little did we know that we were opening them up for rapists. The other woman that we were with managed to escape as the light was now coming through and the rapists were afraid to be identified,” she narrated.
The victim said while she initially had dreams of having a big family, she was now having second thoughts, as she could not bear the thought of once again lying haplessly in a maternity home “waiting to be violated again”.
Counselling sessions, she said, could not erase the thoughts of what happened to her on that fateful day.
“The thought of another person forcing himself on you without consent is not erasable in the mind, it stays with you forever. This is something that a thousand sessions of therapy cannot erase. The wounds are still fresh. I feel like the incident happened yesterday. I now have fear of hospitals and even though I had dreams of having a big family, due to this incident I think I will have to let go of my dream as I do not wish to set foot again in that place,” she said.
The sight of a hospital, the victim said, was now a trigger for further trauma.
“I fear being raped again. I no longer feel safe. I had a dream of having many children but now from what I just got through I now fear hospitals. I fear going near them and I do not think I will get over that fear anytime soon. My dream of having many babies has been shattered,” she said.
The woman said she was having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that their rapists had chosen to prey on them when they were at their most vulnerable.
“A pregnant woman is usually taken to a maternity home when it’s almost time to deliver the baby as by that time one will be tired and fighting for oneself becomes so hard, the fact that I failed to fight for myself from the rapists is the one that is eating me away day by day,” she said.
The rape victim also said that she was afraid that the incident would have long term damage on her marriage, as she could see the effect the incident had on those around her.
“I have fears that my marital home will not recover from this incident. This has not just traumatised me only but those that are around me are also affected by this and I feel like they now look at me differently because of the incident that happened to me,” she said.
While she dealt with her own trauma, she felt stigmatised, as people like to pick her out in crowds and tell others what had happened to her.
“So many people always ask me how it happened, they always want me to narrate to them how this happened and why it happened but then it is hard for me to keep on telling the same story each and every day. I now feel like everybody knows that I was a victim and even when I’m on the streets I feel like people will be pointing fingers at me telling each other that I was a victim of the unfortunate incident,” she said.
Her life was now dominated by nightmares of what happened that day, stealing all the joy of being a first-time mother from her.
“Moving on from what happened is hard and I feel that Iam still far from healing although I had a safe delivery. I still have nightmares of what happened that early hour of the morning. I have looked for help in different places but still the wounds are fresh and I do not know whether they will heal or not,” she added.
Ingutsheni Hospital Clinical director and psychiatrist Dr Wellington Ranga said that it was common for victims of rape to suffer psychological breaks after such traumatic events.
“If you look at people that do not have a history of any psychological problems, yes, they do suffer psychological cracks from any traumatic event. So, that whole category we call them stress related psychotic conditions. So, they do come and that’s where you have your post-traumatic stress disorders, acute stress disorder and all those things. So, we do get those scenarios because you will get victims that end up in depression, not sleeping or eating and so forth.”
Dr Ranga said comprehensive counselling was recommended for such victims, as their condition could deteriorate over time as mental scars were usually not taken as serious as physical ailments.
“At the end of the day, everyone needs counselling for that kind of violation because this is not only a crime that harms their body but it also harms their emotions. The emotional wounds are not seen outside so counselling is needed,” he said.
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