Police in Busia District are investigating circumstances under which a midwife reportedly mishandled a woman in labour and the baby’s head was plucked off.
The horrific allegations say the nurse had pulled too hard during a foot-first birth and ended up holding the decapitated torso of the baby during the botched birth.
When the 21-year-old Lilian Musazi went into labour, the family says, it took some time before she was given attention.
For four days, Ms Musazi had been at Bulumbi Health Centre III waiting for the right moment to deliver her baby.
At one point, her family asked that she be referred to the Red Cross facility if the hospital could not help her deliver.
The father says: “We went on Thursday, if they had seen trouble she would have sent us to Red cross but they used force.”
The health centre has only two midwives and this particular midwife had been on duty on her own for a week.
When the midwife turned to Ms Musazi at about midday, the infant’s legs came out first but was stuck from the shoulder upwards.
Ms Musazi said: “She pulled then she went and sat. Later she came back and told me to push, but the baby refused to come out. She inserted her hands, pulled the baby then started to twist the baby. I cried as she told us to leave if we wanted. How could we go with the baby half out?
“Then she asked someone to bring in the older nurse. The older nurse pulled while she twisted the baby and eventually the baby came out but there was a hole.”
The father of the baby said: “When it come out half way, the nurse kept pulling and pushing it back and in the process the baby died. The child died a terrible death. The government needs to train these people.”
Ms Musazi says her baby was alive, evident by the movement of its legs.
Source: DM
