Page 17 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 4

FAITH STORIES FAITH STORIES

Marriage, Events, Zoey
arrives
I didn't think I would get married.
Having dated that other guy on
and off, I decided I would put
myself in media and become
one of these independent wom-
en who don't need men in their
lives. And then this man called
Mark was sent, who found me
online. He always jokes and
says that IT pays his bills and
got him a wife, because he liter-
ally searched online and I was Mark and Jean with baby Zoey
amongst many - but I was the
only one who wasn't responding
abdomen. The next day I was medication and we had to make
until the third time he wrote and
hot, the day after my stomach a choice to move to a cheaper
a conversation ensued. Mark is
ran and then I started spotting. hospital. Somehow, the ambu-
a gift. We got married in 2009
I went to see the doctor the fol- lance had waited for the report
and in 2010, I left media and ran lowing day and told the guy, before leaving, so they rushed
an events management com-
"Something is not right." He us to another hospital where we
pany which by the time I left, I
told me, "No, it's your first preg- met the doctor who I have been
felt, I was not being faithful, like
nancy, you would not know." I walking with since. This hospital
I was doing it for the money.
insisted that something was not didn't wait for money; they got
Mark and I had a plan: 2 years right and so he said, "Ok, ok, me into bed, got me the medica-
and then we get pregnant. God
since you're insisting, let's just tion and then sorted out all the
actually allowed that part. For
check." I'll never forget. You're admission details. I started my
some unknown reason, we used
there, vulnerable in all your nu- time in hospital of seven days,
to lovingly and playfully call the
dity and the guy checks you and hoping my baby would stay in-
baby in my womb ‘Tulip’ which, tells you, "This is not good" and side. On the seventh day, I re-
I found out later, means ‘eternal
walks out. I remember walking member I felt like I wanted to go
or perfect love’. 26 weeks into
out behind him holding my dress to the loo, but this time when I
the journey, God allowed that
and asking him, "What's not was trying to go, I felt something
child to come into our lives ‘pre-
good?" He said, "You're actually like a bubble engorging from the
mature’. No one actually tells three centimeters dilated, you're front. I started screaming, "The
you that you could give birth
going towards active labor." I'd baby is coming out!"
and go home without a baby. 6
had no pain, I'd had nothing oth- A Sudanese woman whose
1/2 months into our journey this
er than the discharge that I was daughter had given birth came
child came and turned my life
getting and he told me I was go- and slapped me and said, "Keep
around. We had already cho- ing into labor. It turned out that quiet or the baby will come out.
sen names for a boy and a girl,
I'm among a small percentage Calm down." That straightened
so we called her Zoey Nzilani
of women who do not get labor me out, because I was in a pan-
Mwongela. Zoey stands for
pain. ic. She took my phone and called
'God's life', Nzilani - 'on the way'
If you're in pre-term labor, you're Mark, by the time he arrived,
and Mwongela - 'abundance'... supposed to be put in an in- there was a doctor who came
so ‘God's life that came along
clined position and given pro- in and performed the roughest
the way to add’. And she did.
gesterone to stop the labor, but check I have ever had. He then
We often don't realize that our
no one did that for me. I remem- told me that I was six centime-
bodies can speak to us and so
ber I was walked out of his of- ters dilated and the baby was
we ignore them. When the pre- fice and then rushed to hospital, coming. The hospital I was in
term labor threatened, I kept
where they asked us for KES could not handle preterm babies
feeling a weird pressure in my
70,000/- ($700) to give us the so I had to be moved. When my
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