Source: The Star
High cases of maternal and infant mortality rates are as result of traditional massage, Malindi district Medical Superintendent Afsa Zuberi has said.

Zuberi, speaking to the Star yesterday noted that many women at the Coast believe that without abdominal massage they will not deliver safely.

"It is sad that even those women who have gone to school still believe that they have to be massaged by traditional birth attendants for them to deliver smoothly," she said.

She said that many women and children die due the separating of the uterus and placenta which leads to bleeding before delivery (Ante-Partum Hemorrhage) or after delivery bleeding (Post-Partum Hemorrhage).

"We normally receive cases of women who have been massaged and the situation has become worse. Women bleeds heavily and as a result a child suffocates to death and thereafter the mother also dies," said Zuberi.

The doctor revealed that many children who are successfully delivered are mostly injured. "Some traditional massagers end up massaging the unborn babies and as a result it leads to the dislocation of other body parts like shoulders and others have broken hands," she said.

Zuberi further revealed that most of the women who survive the exercise lose their uterus. "Many women have lost their uterus due to these massages. Those few who are lucky can have their uterus repaired," she said.

She cautioned women from engaging in the practice saying that it was illegal. "Let the women know that if the massaging of an expectant mother was vital we could be having the programme in every hospital. Some time back some hospitals used to turn a baby if it is not sleeping in the right direction but it has since been discouraged because it is dangerous," she said.

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