A 49-year-old woman identified as Cecelia Dapaah Gyamfuah has narrated her bitter struggles in life over how she lost eight children.
The single mother, who lives at Lamashegu, a suburb of Tamale in the Northern Region, currently has two children, Francis Addae [a 5-year-son] and Tiwaa Larbi [a 3-year-old daughter].
According to her, she has carried 10 pregnancies but unfortunately lost eight children.
Narrating the incident, she said out of the eight, four died in her womb as still births while four also died as a result of complications after she gave birth to them.
She noted that, the doctors only discovered that injections given to her were the cause of the children lost during her maternity visit for her eighth child.
Narrating her ordeal in an interview with Kofi Adoma Nwanwani, on Angel FM’s Anopa Bofo Morning Show, she said “I gave birth to six [separately], four died in my stomach but two survived. When I’m due for delivery they inform me that the unborn babies have died in my stomach as a result of complications. So it got to a time that medications meant for me during antenatal were not given me anymore”
“Secondly, not knowing that the injection I was taking during maternity at my pregnancy periods was not effective but the doctors did not know. So it was the sixth pregnancy I carried before a doctor discovered that the injection was not doing any good to me hence I must stop taking it since it was the root cause” she explained in Twi.
The mother of two recalled that, she gave birth to her first born in the year 2000 but the child died after one-year and three months.
Afia further indicated that two years after a Caesarean Section(CS) for her last born, she started experiencing some infections which she treated countless times to no avail.
She went for a scan and later discovered that a piece of cotton and other materials were left in her stomach due to doctors’ negligence in the course of the CS.
Her childbearing challenges led to rumours that she has sacrificed her children for money, which she says compelled her to close down a lucrative hairdressing business.
Asked if she feels shy about her situation, Afia responded that “Kofi, I’m not feeling shy anymore, I would have been shy if I were an armed robber or accused of snatching people’s husbands.”
Currently engaged in a tilapia and local herbal medicine business to cater for her two children and herself, she admitted that in spite of her past struggles she feels “happy” in life because her story would be an inspiration to others.
The emotional Afia disclosed that the situation has compelled her to resort to abusing alcohol sometimes in an attempt to ease her pains.
