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Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
A 33-YEAR-OLD Lupane woman died on admission to a clinic allegedly from excessive bleeding after she delivered at home on Monday with the help of her husband and mother in-law.
Ms Debra Nyathi had been co-habiting with Mr Robert Sibanda (38) in Silwane Village under Chief Mabhikwa when she went into labour at home.
She reportedly delivered a baby girl at around 9AM and her husband took her to St Paul’s Clinic in a donkey drawn cart where she died on arrival before she could be attended to at around 4.30PM, leaving behind the new born baby.
Matabeleland North provincial medical director Dr Nyasha Masuka confirmed the incident.
“She delivered at around 9AM at home and the placenta was not removed. The husband took hours to locate the donkeys so he could take her to hospital,” said Dr Masuka.
He said health workers had been dispatched to inquire about circumstances leading to Ms Nyathi who had not registered for pre-natal care.
“What’s coming out is that there could have been some social problems within the family and it looks like she was not booked for the pregnancy. If she had booked she would have been in the records of our community health workers who would have facilitated that she gets transport in time for her delivery,” he said.
“We have sent the health committee to go and investigate because it’s unfortunate that a life gets lost when there is a health development fund which caters for such incidents.”
Dr Masuka said there was need to empower women through health facilities in their communities.
“We are working hard to try and prevent pre-natal death because life should not be lost as a result of social problems, people should know this.
“The community should be aware that we have village health workers and environment health workers to access services. Such services are there in every village and this is information we are trying to spread so that we protect lives,” said Dr Masuka.
The case was reported at St Paul’s police base and Ms Nyathi’s body was taken to the United Bulawayo Hospitals for postmortem.
The postmortem showed that Ms Nyathi died because of excessive bleeding. — @ncubeleon
Online Reporter