Cambodia: Mother heartbroken after baby dies at six weeks
Neang Chantha’s fifth child was born on the way to the health centre, and passed away at six weeks from a congenital heart disease. The doctor told Chantha that if the baby girl had been well nourished, she might have survived.
The 28-year-old mother of four children lives a nightmare because she is a woman. She remains with her abusive husband because in Cambodian culture, leaving him would be worse. Chantha knows there is no way she could support four children alone.
No clean water
Already, she and her children endure grinding poverty. The family lives in a small, dilapidated hut outside Phnom Penh. There is no latrine. Standing behind their mother, two young girls are drinking unsafe water drawn from a cement water jar in front of the hut.
Since the family has no money for firewood, there’s no way to purify the water. Chantha has learned about the health risks related to unclean and unboiled water, especially for little children, but she does not have a choice.
If she had just weighed more…
Chantha becomes emotional when she recalls the death of her fifth child when still an infant. She sits and looks sadly out of her hut with no door.
“One day, my infant developed a fever and cough. After taking medicine for a few days, she did not recover at all. Then, I took her to the hospital. The doctor said her disease would have been treatable if she had just weighed more, about ten kilograms. A few days later, she passed away.”
“I was devastated that I could not help my child. She looked well after birth. It has been almost a year since she passed away. Sometimes I cry when I am alone,” Chantha says, sadly.
Poor post-natal care
Immediately after birth, Chantha did not have good medical treatment. Although the baby was born on the way to health centre, Chantha returned straight to her hut after the baby’s birth. A traditional midwife came to help her later.
According to Cambodia’s Demographic Health Survey 2005, only 22 per cent of births happen in a health facility. The same report cites the infant mortality rate in Cambodia at 66 per 1000 live births.
Of deaths among children under five, neonatal complications account for 30 per cent, pneumonia for 20 per cent and diarrhea for 17 per cent, according to a 2007 World Health Survey.
No money for nutritious food
Chantha was aware that eating vitamin-rich food, vegetables, meat and desserts would make her, as a pregnant mother, healthy. However she could not follow the doctor’s advice. She did not have enough money to buy the vitamin-rich food.
Chantha tries to forget the nightmare and work hard to support her family. She goes every day to a nearby pond to search for vegetables such as morning glory, water hyacinth and other aquatic plants to sell. Sometimes she earns a little more than a dollar a day. Her profit is spent on food for the four children.
Chantha is illiterate, she had no opportunity to go to school. She does not want her children to follow in her footsteps, she wants them to be well educated. “Do don’t know if I can afford to send my children to a high school. If it costs too much for them to get an education, I will have to force them to go and find work to support themselves and the family,” she says.
