Photo courtesy of Betty Angatai. Retrieved from newvision.co.ug
When Esther Atieno started feeling sharp pain, she did not know that she was in labour, considering that she still had three weeks to the expected date of delivery. Atieno assumed it was just normal discomfort or the baby shifting position in the womb. However, the pain intensified, leaving her paralysed.
At about 10:00pm, a boat was got to rush Atieno, a resident of Lake Victoria’s Wayasi island in Namayingo district, to the health facility on Mageta Island across the border in Kenya. The baby could not wait: Atieno gave birth in the middle of Lake Victoria without assistance from a midwife and proper materials for childbirth.
“I had nothing to use during delivery. We had to cut the baby’s umbilical cord with a piece of iron sheet that was patched onto the boat,” Atieno says.
The dire situation was compounded by the heavy downpour immediately after giving birth.
“We put the baby in a tin we normally use to scoop water from the wooden boat, hoping to keep the newborn warm,” she recalls.