Africa-Press – Mozambique. This week, Mozambican civil society associations presented at a press conference the story of a mother who gave birth at the Matola Provincial Hospital. The mother told journalists that she was sedated and neither she nor her family ever received the body of her baby after giving birth in hospital, which she accuses of other forms of ill-treatment.
According to director of the health unit Ana Paula Rodrigues, cited by Radio Mozambique this Wednesday (October 13), the matter concerns the death of a newborn shortly after delivery.
“After the caesarean, the female stillbirth was extracted and removed to the morgue,” said the director, denying any possibility of the baby’s disappearance, as the mother alleged.
According to Ana Paula Rodrigues, the family members returned to the hospital “to find out about the stillbirth, [and] took the death certificate, but did not confirm [see]” the body, but returned some days later, saying they “wanted the baby that had been stolen”, on the premise that the baby had been taken from them.
The family paid more visits to the hospital, but when they went to the morgue, the body “had been removed, following legal procedures,” she said, without elaborating further.
“Since then, we have seen the monitoring of other instances, both by the Ministry of Health, as well as the provincial health services,” Rodrigues added.
The case serves to illustrate the complaints, collated by 40 organisations, concerning violence in maternity hospitals in the country and the suspected trafficking of babies.
Mozambique: Civil society denounces violence against pregnant women
The associations denounce cases of prenatal, childbirth and postpartum violence in hospitals across the country, calling for an investigation and the accountability of any health professionals involved.
