“One foot in the grave” is an expression used to describe people who are very sick or near death. Its origin dates to the 17th century. A 1632 play, titled ‘The Fatal Dowry,’ included the expression. In the United Kingdom during the 1990s, there was also a popular sitcom with the title.
Having a foot in the grave may not be only because of physical ailments but because life becomes meaningless.
“One foot in the grave and one on land” is a variation that is used to describe pregnant women.
This can be disconcerting. Pregnancy is not a sickness; if anything, the process of bringing new life into the world is sacred. However, there are often risks associated with pregnancy. Some women develop conditions like gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, which can lead to eclampsia, both of which are caused largely by hypertension, heart-related ailments if they have a history of heart issues, anaemia, and others.
Pregnant women need the support of relatives, friends and medical personnel. However, we live in a time when many women are alone during their pregnancies. Some do not receive the best medical care and are abandoned by their partners. The absentee baby daddy is so prevalent in our society that it is a norm. It affects the balance in our society. There are not enough male role models. One of the results of this, I believe, are the large number of Guyanese men who are disrespectful and do not value women.
Even with support, pregnancy can be a lonely experience because of a woman’s thoughts and fears. With my first pregnancy, I developed pregnancy induced hypertension. I often felt alone and afraid and though I had support, my thoughts and fears were mine alone to bear. It led to me giving birth some weeks early via emergency caesarean. It was one of the most difficult periods in my life and I was not sure I wanted to have more children. So, when I became pregnant with my second child, I was afraid throughout the pregnancy. I did not develop hypertension again and the doctor said I was not high risk, but still I constantly thought about both my feet landing in the grave. When I woke after the surgery when my second was born, I smiled and breathed a sigh of relief because I was grateful that I still was alive.
We must take comfort in the fact that most women who experience childbirth in Guyana, still have both feet still on the land. However, sometimes the grave claims mothers, sometimes because of existing medical conditions and sometimes because of medical malpractice.
Earlier this week, a friend called me early in the morning. She was in tears. Her relative had died during the night after giving birth at the Georgetown Public Hospital. The afternoon before the now dead woman was posting on social media. According to my friend, labour was induced, somehow the woman’s uterus was ruptured, and she haemorrhaged. Relatives were told to find someone to donate blood, but unfortunately they couldn’t find anyone within that short time.
Birth and death must occur to maintain the balance in our world, but a mother should not die giving birth. And often in Guyana when women die because of malpractice, relatives are not compensated or even get an apology. The medical institutions would often they try to escape liability and business continues as usual.
The death of a woman during childbirth has long term effects; not only for her child as relatives and sometimes the medical personnel may suffer because of the trauma of watching her die. Children of those women may also be subject to suffering because in our harsh Guyanese culture many of those children are told that they killed their mother. The effects that can have on the psyche of the child can surely be detrimental.
The feet of a woman in her thirties landed in the grave this week. This occurs too often. Every woman who goes to give birth is not given the best care in Guyana. Are medical personnel sometimes overwhelmed because of the number of women they have to deal with?
When I gave birth to my youngest in 2013 at a private hospital, a mid-wife told me that one night she was the only one working at the Georgetown Public Hospital and delivered around twenty babies. Whether she exaggerated or not, I cannot say, but we have heard the horror stories; we have heard stories of women being rushed to the theatre too late, we have heard stories of women who gave birth alone because medical personnel ignored them; and we have heard about babies who died in the womb because doctors did not estimate the danger. So sometimes one foot in the grave also applies to the babies.
There are many people in the medical profession in Guyana who seem to not prioritise the patients’ wellbeing. Interaction with some nurses would reveal that they are not passionate about the profession. But perhaps many begin with good intentions and before long are overwhelmed by the work and lose their passion. However, I have also met many excellent nurses who love what they do.
Unfortunately, scary stories regarding the medical profession are not rare here. I recall a conversation where a young man revealed that he was being paid to write the exams for his friend who was studying medicine. I recall also a nurse relaying that a young doctor at the clinic she worked prescribed the same medicine for everyone who visited the clinic that week, regardless of their complaints, because he had no clue what he was doing. No doubt most of our doctors are competent; or at least we hope so. However, the fact that there are those who may be qualified on paper, but are in fact unqualified to practice, means the lives of people who seek their services will continue to be at risk. Who knows how many of our people are in the grave because of such doctors.
Many Guyanese would still have both feet on the land if they could access proper health care. The poor, especially, suffer from the brunt of medical malpractice here. Without money one must accept what the public health care system has to offer. And though the public health care system has improved in many respects, the fact that a woman can bleed to death after giving birth in 2019 means that there is much work to be done. Our private care is also not without its faults either because many cases of medical malpractice that occur at these places are often hidden.
It should concern and motivate all of us to call for change when a woman can be posting on social media one minute and be dead the next because she could not receive blood on time. Why should any Guyanese woman be made to bleed to death in 2019?
