REVEALED: How Mums & Newborn Babies Sleep on Chairs After Delivery in Lagos Hospital

The maternity ward of the Ifako Ijaye General Hospital in Lagos is reportedly a sorry sight owing to space constraints. A mum who gave birth at the hospital two months ago, Mrs. Rose Adesina, in a shocking recount, told Punch few hours after she was delivered of her baby boy, one of the nurses in the ward told her to pack her things, vacate the bed and sit on the chair to allow other women have access to the bed space. This deprived her of the much needed rest after delivery and she has since been living in pains.

She recalled:

“I was delivered of my baby girl around 1am and moments later I guess I slept off. Very early in the morning, a nurse came to me and said I should pack my things because I would need to go and sit on a chair, pending the time I would be discharged, so they could admit another person to use the bed.

I thought I was dreaming, so I had to wipe my face and be sure what I heard was real because I was tired and could barely talk loudly. I asked her why she wanted me to stand up from the bed and sit on a plastic chair when I was just recuperating. She said there was no luxury of space and that there were people waiting to be admitted.

By that time, all the parts of my body were aching and all I needed was rest, but I had to stand up. In fact, when my husband came in and met me sleeping on the chair, he was disturbed and screamed. They explained to him but it just didn’t make sense to him, just as it was like a dream to me.

They laid my baby on the floor while I sat on the plastic chair for about five hours, writhing in pain. By the time I was discharged later in the day, I had become so depressed, miserable and weak, with cramps in my stomach and all over my body. Since then, I have been on drugs and that has made me a regular visitor to the hospital for post-natal treatment.

It’s painful. If I had known, I would have gone to a private hospital because even when I had my twins; a boy and a girl, I wasn’t this sick. All through the time I was on that chair, it was as if I was dying because all the parts of my body were going numb. I had a backbreaking delivery, so, to deny me of a quality rest was simply wicked.

In fact, the nurses told me that someone stood up for me so I had to stand up for someone else. It was during a brief interaction with other women on my way out of the ward that they told me it was a norm because of the crowd and the inadequate bed space.”

Adesina’s experience highlights what pregnant women go through in this all-important hospital, where women who had just been delivered of their babies are told, sometimes compelled, to vacate the bed and sit on plastic chairs so that other pregnant women in the queue could be admitted.

As the only main General Hospital in the area, catering for the health needs of residents of this part of Lagos, including Ogba, Ojodu, Agege, Abule Egba and many others from neighbouring towns in Ogun State, including Agbado, Sango, Mowe, Ibafo, among many others, the number of patients, especially pregnant women, that besiege the hospital almost on a daily basis is often enormous.

On entering the hospital, the maternity is about the only new building, standing gigantically on the left side of the premises. It comprises emergency ward, children ward and four other maternity wards. Each of the four wards comprises about 16 bed spaces. But as fascinating as it appears, it appears inadequate to cater for the number of pregnant women that besiege the hospital daily.

The Ifako General Hospital does not attract such human traffic only because of its location, findings revealed that the relatively cheap cost of medical care and the expertise of its medical personnel have made it a preferred choice for many.

Read more on the report here.