[/caption]Hopes of a 20-year-old Mulanje woman to have a baby turned into grief when she delivered a 300 gram stone at Mulanje District Hospital yesterday morning.
Mulanje District Health Office (DHO) and police confirmed yesterday that Agnes Msolo, in her sixth pregnancy, delivered a stone with a black string tied around it at the hospital.
Doleful looking Msolo said this is a third time she has delivered strange objects. She said last year she also delivered a stone and other strange objects.
Her voice barely audible and with a chitenje wrapped around her shoulders, the way women who deliver stillborn babies are covered, Agnes was at pains to explain her ordeal from her home in Kamoto Village, T/A Nkanda at the foot of Mulanje Mountain.
Msolo said she started feeling labour pains on Saturday and on Sunday she could not walk. She was taken to a traditional birth attendant.
“The birth attendant said she could not see the passage. She told us to go to Nkanda Health Centre [from] where we were referred to Mulanje District Hospital. I was tested, and they said the passage would soon be clear. I was given a bed, and when the doctor came to help me, out came the stone,” recalled Agnes.
In her five years of marriage, she said, she has been pregnant six times, but she has no child.
“During the first three pregnancies, I was giving stillborn babies. During the last pregnancy, I also delivered a stone and strange objects at a traditional birth attendant. We have visited traditional healers, but it has not helped. I suspect an in-law, who warned me that I was going to give birth to a stone,” said Agnes, saying she wants the case to be sorted out at Chief Kamoto’s court.
“I presented the case to the chief when my in-law told me that I was going to deliver a stone. The case was adjourned until I deliver and since I have delivered a stone, as she predicted, I want justice to be done,” said Agnes.
Her 25-year-old husband, Liston Msolo, who plies his trade as a sawyer in the mountain, said he was shocked that his wife delivered a stone again. He said he plans to divorce his wife through their marriage counsellors.
“My mother took her to the hospital on Sunday. It’s the second time this has happened. During her fifth pregnancy, she delivered a stone and some strange objects. Her relatives denied it. They blamed us, that is why we did not pursue the matter. Now, we have the evidence.
“People have always mocked me. I have visited many traditional healers, that at least I should see my child’s face but to no avail. I am afraid that if I maintain the marriage, I may die. I know there is sorcery involved,” said Liston, who dropped out of school in Standard Two.
Liston’s mother, Fanny Wilson, said they are shocked that Agnes’ relatives “do not act when we tell them of these incidences”. She said it is time her son looked for another wife.
District health officer (DHO) for Mulanje John Chikolombwe confirmed Agnes delivered at the district hospital. He said nurses at the hospital conducted manual tests on the woman since the hospital has no scanner. He said the nurses told her to go home and come back yesterday morning for a check up, only to be surprised the woman came in the night in serious labour pains.
“She was taken to labour ward where nurses were shocked when a stone weighing 300 grams with strings attached around it was being delivered instead of a baby,” said Chikolombwe.
He said he was recalled at the hospital where he conducted pregnancy tests on Msolo but no signs of pregnancy were observed.
Mulanje Police spokesman Ralphael Makondetsa said they are instituting investigations into the issue but will wait for the matter to be discussed at Chief Kamoto’s court.
