FIRST, it was a sad January 20, 2022 Guyana story reported in the regional press about a mother in her eighth month of pregnancy ‘giving birth in a car’; then about how she’d been ‘refused admission by a private hospital’ — and that she’d ‘tested COVID-19 positive…’

But the STRESSED mother could have been just another headline subject, with ‘How’ and ‘Why’ it all happened left completely to the speculation of the uninformed public, now also left to (hopefully) ‘Stay-tuned’ for more ‘Breaking News.’

The gripping story may also have earned her the charitable sympathy of some broken-hearted citizen who prefers to remain anonymous – or none of the above.

Indeed, there are many unknown cases regionally and worldwide – and indeed across Guyana — of deserving cases supported by caring and sharing individuals and/or entities moved by the way the reported story impacted their minds – and pockets, or pocketbooks.

It’s equally true, though, that there can also be cases where reporting the story hasn’t helped the person needing help, requested or not.
But quite apart from being a still-under-reported news item of potential public import, it’s also turned out that the Georgetown Public Hospital was the one to do the reporter’s job and inform the public (and the media) that a private hospital had in fact turned the mom-to-be client away, resulting in her forcibly heading to the public institution – as a last resort.

News items such as these do help to draw sympathetic attention to deserving cases and causes, but it should be for more than just ‘headlines’ sake, if only out of interest in caring for the many other unknown subject mother(s) who have also experienced similar circumstances.

An investigative report, however brief, would have shown the extent to which it may have been a ‘one-off’ incident, or the coming to light of day of a hidden social problem well-known to a few, but not to the many.

Fact is, preventable and avoidable as these irregular cases are, they do happen in every society – and in each known case, do make Headline News.
But equally true is that Guyana is not the only place where mothers can end up giving birth out (or outside) of a hospital.

For example, 11 days after the updated versions of the Guyana mother (on February 1, 2022) I read a similar report from the other side of the world – this time, a CNN story about a mother who ‘gave birth over the Atlantic during a flight from Africa to the US…’

She’d boarded the 11-hour flight from Accra, Ghana, for Washington’s Dulles airport on a Boeing 787-8, but six hours into the flight she went into labour and was ready to deliver, eventually making a successful in-flight delivery, thanks to the presence on board of a physician and a nurse – and a cabin attendant who’s a former nurse – and the plane landed safely with one more passenger that it took off with.

In the same story, CNN also reported that it was not the first time that babies were born on flights, disclosing similar incidents in 2021 — and as far back as 2018.

In the Guyana case, social media comments gave more and wider (and better) angles to the story that the media house reporting did not bother to pursue (in the race to be first), including that the turned-away mother to be was a patient of the said hospital visiting on a check-up and was rejected because she had been tested COVID-positive.

(Subject to being so informed) I’ve seen nothing suggesting that the leads provided by Guyanese social media commentators haven’t been followed up by the reporting media houses.

And then there was yesterday’s feature Chronicle story about a GDF soldier who always wanted to be (the equivalent of) a midwife and got the opportunity to do the job of his dreams more than once while delivering military service.

This story pasted over all the previous reports, if only because it confirmed that very difficult deliveries are common and can’t be avoided because of the simple reason of the impossibility of predicting ‘when a baby will bust de water-bag’ (as some Caribbean elders will tell you with confidence).

The soldier with nursing in mind reconfirmed that when it comes to delivering a baby, he’ll do anything – even suspend a bath halfway – because of his recognition that in each previous case he’d left the barracks or the camp to deliver a baby, it was always about saving a life (or two) and/or bringing to life, in difficult circumstances, someone who can be a Guyana President someday.

And to know that soldier survived school because of a vendor who ensured that he ate everyday despite his single-parent mother being able to afford — and who he profusely thanked (through the reporter) for giving him that opportunity to live to do what he always wanted to, even if it isn’t his job today — is just as heart-breaking as the original too-limited report, although for different (more positive) reasons.

The moral(s) of this story can be expressed in many ways, from the fact that small problems can always lead to bigger issues, to the fact that social problems have no permanent place of residence – and not every story is just what’s reported.

But at the end of the day, as revealed in this story (of mothers delivering babies in unusual circumstances), it’s shone light on a problem that exists everywhere, for no fault of anyone.

But in each case, all was well that ended well and a new life was added to the billions on earth, safely delivered by those so trained to at the Georgetown Public Hospital — and in the heart of the soldier who always wanted, not to ever have to ‘take’, but always to deliver lives.
Now, THAT IS what REAL Good News sounds, looks and feels like.