EVER since Sumarie Balwant, called “Shalinie”, 34, of 640 Good Hope, East Coast Demerara learnt she was expecting her second child, everyone — including her two-year-old son, husband and relatives — was elated and was expecting her to bring home a baby for Christmas.But the unexpected happened on November 17, when Balwant began experiencing labour pains and was taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), where she had to wait many hours before she was warded in the maternity section of the hospital.

Though in tremendous pain, she was told that she wasn’t ready to deliver her second child. The baby later died inside of her.

Still very stricken with grief, Balwant was unable to speak with this newspaper; but her mother, Yungal Kumarie, said her daughter was still in deep grief, and it would take some time for her to adjust to the loss of her second child, especially since staffers at the facility have been cited for negligence.

Balwant had reached a full term pregnancy when she went into labour and was taken to GPHC, where family members claim the nurses were hesitant to deliver the baby, saying she was not ready, even though her sac, commonly called ‘water bag’, had burst, Kumarie disclosed.

The woman told this publication that they could not be in a Christmas mood, but for the sake of the two-year-old who keeps asking for his baby brother, they had to put up fairy lights, because he was full of questions.
Kumarie said her grandson keeps on asking when his little brother would be coming back, even though he was at the funeral and had seen the baby in a coffin.
At the funeral service, he had put a toy car in the coffin for his baby brother, and the family had made sure he had seen when the baby was buried; but, at his age, he could not fully comprehend what had transpired, and is still of the view that his brother would be coming home.

As for his mother, she has been trying to cope with her loss, and it really brought back her horrid experience at GPHC when a neighbour delivered her baby and went over to display her bundle of joy to the grieving family.

Kumarie said that whenever she looks at her daughter she can see the pain etched on her face, and, as a mother, she understands the pain of losing a child.

The woman added that her daughter, a housewife, was so looking forward to the birth of her baby, but all she is left with is emptiness, and this Christmas is bleak for the family.
Kumarie said she is not sure what to say to her daughter, but she told her that she would get another baby one day, when the time was right.