It's a Girl

Thousands of babies are born everyday but each one is, or at least should be, special to his or her own family and to the people around that family who care for them. If this is true, each birth is a gift from God. We as a family received a gift from God last week. Mphatso is the Chichewa word for gift and that is our new little one’s name.

Her parents, Thomas and Jean, decided on the name long before she was conceived, realizing that if they were to have another child, it would be a gift from God. Jean had had a 52 hour labor that was only ended successfully with a c-section when their first child Chimwemwe was born 4 years ago. Both mother and baby had nearly died. They were cautious to try again. In Malawi, 8.6 children out of 100 die before the age of one year old, according to the 2010 CIA World Face book statistics. (Don’t even ask about a .6^th of a child. These are statistics.) Most of them die shortly after birth, for a number of reasons from unavailable health services, and inadequate health care, to bad water and malaria. The list of causes seems endless. But the reality is real. It is so real that many expectant mothers won’t even discuss their pregnancy with anyone outside the family. It is considered bad manners to mention someone’s pregnancy to them. Everyone sees it, but won’t talk about it until the baby is born, when it is safer to discuss, when they can hold the baby.

Before considering another baby, Thomas and Jean had lengthy conversations about the risks and the best procedures to follow for a good outcome. Since they are living in a remote village area, more than an hour by motor bike from the nearest hospital, they decided that she should come to Blantyre for a doctor and for the birth. The doctor was adamant that the only safe delivery would be another c-section, given Jean’s history and health. So she came to stay with me as the date for the procedure got closer. When she went on a Thursday for a checkup with  two weeks to go, the doctor said she was ready and moved the date up to the following Tuesday. And so, last Tuesday, Mphatso was born at just over 8 lbs. She is healthy and so is her mother. We don’t take this for granted, in a country with the 12^th highest infant mortality rate in the world. This is a gift from God. As cries of life fill the house, we praise God for his mphatso to us as a family.