Woman mourns loss of five newborns

Jacinta Akinyi, a 30-year-old mother of four of Kachieng’ Bongu village inRachuonyo South Sub County is a bereaved woman after losing her five newborns. She delivered the quintuplets on November 12.

She is married to Josephat Okumu who works at Sukari Industry Limited as a cane cutter.

The casual labourer who went to work as usual on Saturday delivered two girls and three boys at Matata Nursing home in Oyugis. Jacinta has four other children said she did not experience any trouble with labour and was surprised when she delivered the five.

“There was no pain at all. I just felt like going for a long call but when I called my mother-in-law, she advised that we should rush to the hospital,” she said. Sadly, one boy and one girl died shortly after birth.

Matata Nursing Officer Kennedy Otieno voiced his concern about the babies’ weight which was below 2 kgs instead of the expected 3.5 kgs. According to him, Jacinta delivered her babies 7 weeks to the normal 40 weeks.

Jacinta, who pleaded with Kenyans to help her financial situation was then moved to Kisii Level Five Hospital with her remaining babies.

Sorrow hit her again when she lost all the three remaining babies by Tuesday morning. The doctors who had said they were in good condition said they lost the babies to pneumonia and other birth-related complications.

Hospital matron Florence Ogero speculated that Jacinta may have skipped antenatal visits, saying the deaths were as a result of disseminated cardiovascular collapse.

Talking about her loss, Jacinta says it is all God’s doing. “It is God’s plan which I could do nothing to control. We still thank God and we’ll leave all these to him,” she said.