Mothers shun hospitals, look up to elderly midwife

By Kevin Tunoi

The women bypass equipped hospitals in Eldoret town as they head to Huruma Estate to meet a midwife who delivers their babies. Their choice is not because they can’t afford the hospital fee, but a 70-year-old woman has given them confidence that she can handle them ‘professionally’ if not better than qualified personnel.

A mother of nine and resident of King’ong’o, Mary Keremei, has brought forth many babies including three of her own grandchildren.

In her one-roomed ‘clinic’, we find Keremei attending to a woman lying on her back on a rickety bed the mid-wife gently massages her bulging belly.

wrong position

“This woman is due any time but the baby’s positioning in the womb is not right that is why I am trying to reposition it,” she says, professionally.

As she rubs the distended tummy to get the baby into the proper position, Keremei use a stethoscope to check the baby’s heartbeat.

Like a doctor, she places the stethoscope on the mother’s belly and listens to the heartbeat. Squinting her eyes as though struggling to focus or listen to a distant sound Gogo Dawa, as her patients fondly call her, nods and informs her patient that the baby is okay.

The popular midwife says her expertise was passed down to her from her mother and has since perfected the skill.

“I used to watch my mother help deliver babies and it was easy for me to pick the trade after she passed on,” says Gogo, her eyes on her patient.

third patient

This patient is the third one she is attending to today, having successfully helped two mothers deliver earlier in the day. She usually handles three or more patients daily. She charges them Sh500 per delivery.

The women keep coming despite there being many modern hospitals in the town.

Says Gogo: “Majority of the women who come here say they don’t want to go to hospital because there are many negative stories they have heard about the facilities and fear going there.”

sterilised scissors

Despite her age, Gogo knows she has to protect her patients from infection. She uses  sterilised surgical scissors that were donated to her by well-wishers from abroad.

She says that she only uses the scissors when there is an emergency.

An expectant mother, Joylene Jepkorir, 24, travelled from Timboroa town in Uasin Gishu County, some 50km away and has been at Gogo’s home for three days waiting to deliver her baby.

Before Jepkorir came here, she had spent a week at a local medical facility because her delivery date had mistakenly been brought forward.

“This is my first pregnancy and I feared that I would not be attended to well by doctors or nurses. When a woman who has delivered here referred me to Gogo, I took up the opportunity,” says an optimistic Jekorir.

Jepkorir says many women think ultrasound scans, which are done to ascertain the position or condition of the unborn baby, causes deformities after birth and thus avoid going to hospitals.

“We are told technology is harmful and radiation emitted from some of the machines can cause cancer. For me and the other women therefore, traditional ways of delivery are the best,” she tells The Standard.

With that frame of mind and the fact that Gogo gives the women all the attention they crave, the grandmother has a full plate for now.

And as we leave Gogo’s ‘clinic’, we hear the first cry of a newborn. Indeed, choosing Gogo Dawa for a mid-wife has worked well for Jepkorir.