Dandora nurses suspended after woman gives birth outside hospital gate

Two nurses from Dandora Health Centre have been suspended following an incident at the facility where a woman is reported to have given birth outside the hospital's gate due to lack of a Sh20 registration fee.

Speaking to journalists, Nairobi's Health executive Mohamed Dagane said that the county has launched investigations on the incident and disciplinary action shall be taken against those who were at fault.

“Mothers are not supposed to be subjected to inhuman delivery experiences in or outside our health facilities,” Nairobi County Health executive Mohamed Dagane said.

Residents of Dandora took to the streets on Monday after the woman who was identified as Mary Atieno was forced to give birth outside Dandora Health Centre’s gate after being allegedly turned away.

The furious residents took to the streets lighting bonfires protesting what they termed as negligence from the Nairobi County-owned health facility.

How it happened

Mary Atieno who claims to have given birth at the health facility’s gate explained to journalists how the hospital staff had told her that they could not feel her baby’s movements and thus she needed to seek urgent medical attention from the nearby Mama Lucy Hospital.

Atieno went on to claim that she could not make it to Mama Lucy Hospital and delivered just outside the facility in the full glare of the hospital staff.

Early this year, a video of a woman giving birth at a hospital reception in Athi River as nurses took tea was shared online, angering netizens.

The incident, which happened at Shalom Hospital, was filmed and uploaded by a man who had taken his wife to the hospital before the woman suddenly went into labour.

In the video, the man is seen filming the whole incident asking the hospital staff for help as they walk away.

The video ends with a shot of other patients doing a checkup on the mother and newborn that had just been delivered on the hospital floor.