Expectant mothers in labour at Kalwa health centre in Mkushi are refusing to be attended to by a male nurse during delivery.
According to the random interviews conducted by the Daily Nation in the area, expectant mothers are not willing to have a male midwifery.
Mothers talked to said,they felt uncomfortable to be helped to deliver by a male nurse who was not the husband.
Others said it was a taboo and against traditional practice to be attended to by a male nurse in delivery as opposed to the female counterpart.
Speaking on the same matter, Kalwa health centre neighbourhood health committee chairman Happison Kapengwe confirmed the development and said the matter should be looked into urgently.
He said government should consider deploying a female nurse to the health facility before expectant mothers reverted to old habit of delivering from homes.
“Government should act as soon as possible by sending a female nurse to the centre to arrest the situation. The situation is not good,” Mr. Kapengwe said.
And Chief Mulungwe’s woman advisor Doreen Kalunga said mothers in the area were were not happy about the development which they described as embarrassing. Ms. Kalunga explained that due to the prevailing situation, some pregnant women preferred to deliver at Fiwila Mission health centre where they would cover about 30km to reach the health facility to avert the embarrassment at Kalwa health post.
Efforts to get a comment from acting Mkushi District Health Director Doctor Chisali Lusale proved futile by press time.
Meanwhile Women in Mulungwe in Mkushi have been urged to form authentic groups to benefit from government programmes.
Mkushi north Member of Parliament (MP) Doreen Mwape implored women during commissioning of solar hammer milling plants in the area
Ms. Mwape told women to stand up and be counted by organising themselves in authentic registered clubs for development.
These are the issues Minister Chitalu Chamba Cholera Chilufya should be investing in rather than paid tours for his colleagues to study medicinal marijuana.
Respect their wishes. A man put them in that position in the first place.
#MeToo at work… too many medics take advantage of their patients and instead of performing medical procedure they perform unwanted amorous ones. These are the matters that must be critically examined; the poor women will be too embarrassed to even bring out the crime most of the time because they are not even sure whether that was palpating or something else…
This is just ignorance. I lliteracy is very bad. If they want let their husband’s deliver them
@Tracymiro,
Ignorance? How old are you? Women are in effect asking for the right to choose, and you call it ignorance?
Don’t be primitive it’s got nothing with being educated, we’re Africans and our culture is rich and respectful, pregnant mothers should be attended by female nurses or doctors OK.
Iwe Chee Colour, uli mwana wa ndoshi nangu bakupulilefye ? Do you know anything about Patient rights?
how about male gynecologists(doctors) who do deliveries of babies? No one has issues with them anywhere including Mkushi. Infact there should send more male nurses there. That’s purely being sexism.
@sharpshooter,
“…send more male nurses there. That’s purely being sexism”
That is an oxymoron.
Mothers have the right to choose in accordance with the norms and traditions they are comfortable with.
We are black Africans we should behave like truly Africans let us not mimic like the musungus ( white people) so Dr Chilufya send female nurses to mkushi.
What about mc male circus ision, us men when we go for mc you that is a female nurse who working on you but we just say yes just continue of what you are doing. Now mkushi mothers what are they complaining? Just live them don’t help.
I think the expectant mothers are right,let them be given female nurses.some of these guts tend to help and in the actual sense its the other way round.It happened in milenge district where the man forced himself on an expectant mother.
Where is our customs and values?Africans twasebana this is a taboo
Instead of these guys becoming soldiers they are busy studying midwifery as if they are girls, respect our mothers and give them female nurses to deliver babies
The problem starts at enrolment, why do authorities allow males to register as mid-wives. Also, there are females who train in male circumcision. Traditionally, it makes patients uncomfortable. Let the Govt address this with the seriousness it deserves. It’s not a secret that there are some male mid wives who have ended up abusing these women. A lot of sexually abused patients fail to report these cases.
Pipo sure, do you know how the so called female nurses treat those women?
Let them do another survey in other areas and see.. Can those women work in remote areas? Eg lambwe chomba, kilwa highland? Don’t just comment so that pipo know that you can comment Think critically Zambia has remote areas where female nurses can’t accept to go ….. Infant let them be allowed to be attended to by female nurses and I hope even during c/ section only femalez will be attending go them… Bwafya saana you need to be wise to understand some issues.
This is a personal choice. Personally I wouldn’t allow a female nurse to bathe me.
@Ndanje you are right but wait until wen you are truly sick… Do you know labour pain? U undress yourself otherwise there will be less work for men if are tod not to attend to them… Ask male nurses they will rejoice like Jesus has come…. As that job is hard and there are complications in labour ward guys….. Its not as easy as most of us think..
…let it not look like this is a fight for women only…deep down even the husbands are never comfortable for another man to see later on touch pantweno…and there you are in the club with your wife….some dude approaches your wife and say..
..hi madam, how is our baby..??
…she is fine…. she is a girl now
…who is that guy..??
..ooh..thats the nurse who attended to me when I was delivering Chimuka…
..those who are married know exactly how they would feel…
..so chikamba uyu….aaah
..she is a big girl now.****
Which one is Kalwa Health Centre? And this nurse doesn’t click
So they want male nurses to be attending to “pregnant” men and not women? What are they are scared of ? Utter ignorance.
Even those male nurses have wives being attended to by fellow male nurses.. So ways the problem?
Me as a man I prefer female nurses
But most of the doctors are male and are being called to attend to the same expectant mothers when there are complications. .do what’s the difference of we are just referring to the gender?
As for Male circumcision, it is not a sickness but someone is very health and they decide when and at times who to do the procedure on them. Pregnancy is different. Let people’s rights/wishes be known because we are still Africans.
Actually I disagree to let the male nurse
be attending to the expectant mother, as African traditional it is not allowed for a man who is not the husband to the woman who is expecting to see her nakedness. Here in Africa we respect womens as our mothers, so let respect there rights and wishes to choose whom they feel is right person to attend them
Let us respect women tradition is tradition
we don’t want any type of male, there’s circumcision they can manage PERIOD
HaChildish!