Women 'detained' in hospital

I was touched by a recent story aired at one of my local channels about 43 women who were detained 3 months ago after delivery. The reason for their ‘imprisonment’ at Kenyatta National Hospital was because they could not raise about Kshs. 4,000 maternity fee.

Sad is the fact that these women had to spend their post-natal days in ‘prison’ with no nourishing food that they require. The sad bare truth is that many women in Kenya undergo these undignified situations because of poverty in most African countries. Can you imagine the ‘prison’ that you undergo as a pregnant woman? (By pregnancy prison in the African setting, I mean the usual, ‘thou shalt not eat these, do this, mingle with this group or even say this’ because you are pregnant). There are immediate boundaries in the society once you get pregnant. Some communities even go further to stigmatize pregnancy.

And imagine after all the trauma of child birth and you are ‘detained’ in the real sense… You are shoved in a heavily-padlocked and guarded room with little comfort for your ‘bundle of joy’ and your worn out body… My challenge to governments... why not subsidize maternity fees to give women the decency that they require as they protect the generational tree? I think this is very possible.