“I was surprised to hear that the heavy work I thought was helpful was harmful to me and my baby.”
A story of individual change from Cross River change
I am a hardworking and industrious farmer. I lost my parents at a very tender age and this denied me the right to education. I did not even know my age until few months ago when I met my age mate in the clinic during an antenatal visit.
My husband is a polygamist and I am the first of his 3 wives. Altogether, I gave birth to 12 children, lost 3 to death and have 9 survivals. The second wife is a mother of 7 children while the third has 6, so you can imagine the demand this places on our husband to carter for such a large family. I needed to work very hard to take care of my children, so I started intensive farming since it is the only lucrative business in our community. I used to till the soil, plant, weed, and harvest my farm produce. I trekked long distances on our hilly roads to fetch firewood, carry heavy basins of harvested cassava and other things from my farm. I enjoyed doing these activities more during the last trimester of my pregnancies because I believed doing them would help make my labour easy. My husband was ignorant; he felt I was doing the right thing! No one around me knew about the negative effects of heavy work during pregnancy and so I was not given correct counsel.
It was not until my encounter with the female worker that I was enlightened. I was surprised to hear that the heavy work I thought was helpful was harmful to me and my baby. I made a decision to reduce my heavy work. I discussed it with my husband and the male worker helped convince him. That was how my husband took over all my farm activities. He would fetch firewood and break it for cooking, send the children to fetch water from the river and he also assisted me in cooking when I complained of tiredness. For the first time, I rested in my last trimester and I was relieved.
Everything went well this morning when I delivered my baby right here at home without any complications. I have been advised in the hospital to come for family planning so this will be my last issue.
I have gained knowledge that has helped me and I will be able to advise other women correctly. Maybe the death of my babies was due to the heavy work I was doing – the last one that died had a frail neck at birth – every effort by the doctors to make it firm failed until he died.
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