Surprise New Neighbor

 “Even in the familiar there can be surprise and wonder.” 

~Tierney Gearon

Two nights ago the absolute weirdest thing happened in front of my house, and I’m NOT exaggerating. Looking back now and thinking about it from a global perspective, I'm guessing this probably happens to many women in developing countries, but it took me by surprise.

I left my house and rode my bike to buy some phone credit. About ten minutes later, as I am turning the corner and riding down my road back to my house, I start hearing these horrifying screams from a woman. It just sounded really scary. As I approached my house I saw lots of little kids and some women and a couple of men all out in the street right in front of my house. I also see a woman on all fours in the grass right in front of my compound. She is the one who had been screaming. I didn’t really understand at first, because everyone was talking really fast in Ewe. After a few minutes, I realized that the woman just gave birth in the grass in front of my house!

Since the baby was out, but the placenta was still inside, she couldn’t really move or do anything. The women living in our neighborhood all rallied to help her. The mid-wife who lives across the street quickly came to the rescue, cleaning up the baby and everything. Eventually, the new mom went back into her compound, changed her clothes, and she and her baby left for the hospital with her husband, who wasn’t there for the birth, but came after someone called him.

Afterwards, I talked with some of the women on my street about what happened. They said they think she didn’t know her due date and she thought she was having a miscarriage when the baby was coming. One woman pointed out exactly what I was thinking, which was, why didn’t she just hurry back into her home instead of just sitting in the grass, since she was maybe 30 feet away from her compound? I think my favorite reaction was from a man who lives in the same compound as the woman, saying “I didn’t even know she was pregnant!” Others knew she was pregnant, but just didn’t think she was that far along. 

Thankfully, it seems that everything went well and the family now has a beautiful new baby boy. The whole incident was pretty shocking to me, but unfortunately, these kinds of stories are not uncommon in the developing world; at least this one has a happy ending.