I always had the question of what the cause of postpartum hemorrhage is. This horrific situation where women bleed following childbirth. I have heard of at least three cases where women died as a result of it, and I just kept on asking myself: Was it medical negligence? Inadequate care? Some people in our village blame this on witchcraft or evil forces, but I believed there was more to it.
I never imagined that I would see this with my own eyes.
It has only been two days since my worldview was altered. My wife and I were having a typical evening cooking dinner when the phone rang. It was my wife's younger brother. He was speaking in an urgent and panicked tone, "Please, come help us at the hospital; my wife is giving birth."
The sense of urgency in his voice made my heart thump. We left our dinner at once and hurried off to the hospital a few blocks away. During that short ride, I did what many of us might do during such a time of crisis, pray for a safe delivery. Sometimes praying alone is not enough.
When we arrived, we saw a very pitiful scene, the positive aspect was that a healthy baby boy was born, but then things turned worse because his mother had very bad postpartum hemorrhage. Two bags of blood and the best services of the health team were of no use because the bleeding would not cease.
My brother-in-law had already donated blood, but not enough, that's why they summoned us. They required more donors. And without hesitation, I volunteered to go with the nurses and donate my blood.
But life can also be cruelly quick. She was dead before they could finalize the blood work. Like that. The woman I had seen that morning, alive and radiating life, had slipped from us in mere hours.
These circumstances have turned out to be disastrous. My brother-in-law now finds himself with the impossible task of mourning his wife's death, taking care of the newborn and the remaining children. What potentially could have been a time for celebration of the new life is now merely a time of bereavement.
It made me aware of my own mortality. Will I die in this way one day? One minute of preparation for some of the greatest delights of life and then? We plan our lives, consider the future, with death lurking in the shadows.
It is still a fresh wound. I am shivering as I write this. How can a human being be present in the morning and dead by the night? Impossible, but it did happen before our very eyes.
This experience made me learn some bitter realities:
- Life is so delicate.
- Happiness and tragedy can come together.
- At times, no matter how hard everyone will try, the outcome cannot be changed.
- Sensitization of maternal health complications is necessary.
- Under such a moment of loss to families, there is no replacement for the support system.
Life is really just too fragile and sometimes one comes to realize this only through such a tragic loss. While there are some tragedies for which you can do nothing, you can all stand by one another through them and also raise awareness of some of the serious maternal health complications.
Observing my brother-in-law go through this unthinkable loss makes me realize that although we can't control death, we can control how we stand by those who are left behind. At times, it's all we can do.
The image used is AI generated.
Posted Using INLEO
