This week we welcomed the 2nd baby born to a vulnerable mother at Karibu Centre. Baby Ian.
This baby was born to an 11-year old (no, that was not a type-o) girl who was supposedly 5 months pregnant.
After 3 days of backache not alleviated by tylenol, we took her to the doctor.
The Kenyan system is interesting. We were told that she bore a 6kg baby. Folks, that is 13.2 pounds, by an 11 year old who is 5 months pregnant. It wasn’t hard to figure that someone bearing a child that big had to be full term.
Something doesn’t compute right? Even more, we were told that the hospital was isolating the baby because it was too big, and they didn’t want the mother to feed it. They the baby to lose weight.
HUH???? At this point I think Ian and I truly, if we are at all honest, were thinking, “Are they crazy or just really uneducated?”
Turns out neither.
Our social found out that the doctors lied. They were actually taking the baby from the mother because they thought she was too young to have one, and if they discovered that she had no help, they would keep the baby and tell her it had died. Our social worker and our house parent talked to several doctors and assured them that there was a great deal of support for this girl, including some familial support….and so mom and baby are finally home! And, the baby is a healthy 6 something pounds. Can YOU EVEN IMAGINE if you found out your doctor in the states had lied to you??? Litigation of that type just doesn’t happen here.
So, we decided that it was better that the “system” was just corrupt as usual rather than crazy or wildly uneducated.
Pictures/video of the new mom and baby should be up on the Karibu Centre facebook page. If your not a fan of it yet, you should be!