A few weeks ago I had a new patient – a cute little baby boy who was brought by her mother to the clinic because of colds. The boy was so cute I was not able to resist the temptation not to play with him while taking his vital signs. During my history taking I was able to elicit the fact that the parents were not married. The mother, in her twenties, only wished to have a child, and refused to be tied through marriage to any man, not even to the father of this cute little boy. She has a negative perception of marriage as she pointed out that it will only deter her plans of going abroad. “Why marry when I could have a baby without getting tied. Right now he has given me enormous happiness,” she said.

Just a few days ago, a poor family whom we have always helped, informed us of their discovery of a baby boy under the mango tree near their home. The mango tree is situated near a water pump where the families in this community fetch their water. The youngest son of this family was fetching water when he saw a bloodied young woman coming from the mango tree, approached the water pump. This lead to their discovery of a cute baby boy with a huge stone on top of his chest, still with his placenta intact. They hurriedly brought home the boy and called on a midwife to help them with the child.
to be continued…..