About 380 babies and 16 mothers have died at a Limpopo hospital in less than three years‚ apparently as a result of traditional remedies meant to induce and hasten childbirth‚ according to a report.
The Sowetan reported on Thursday that according to management at the Dilokong Hospital in Driekop outside Burgersfort‚ pregnant women are drinking a variety of concoctions which they either buy from traditional healers or make at home‚ resulting in ruptured wombs.
Other complication include internal bleeding‚ liver poisoning and the possibility of a baby suffocating to death.
The hospital's CEO‚ Mathiba Mashishi‚ told the newspaper: “We have a serious problem. This needs serious nonintervention.”
Mashishi said hospital staff are stopping visitors bringing drinks for pregnant women in an attempt to curb the problem.
Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba said “as a department we are very much concerned about the mortality and morbidity as a result of this concoction.”
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