Have we ever considered that we are super-blessed? People of most countries do not even know what a health insurance is. One BBC article caught my attention today. The article made me think a million times how blessed we are being in this country. The article is about intersex babies — babies born in between the usual male and female traits. The venue of the story is not USA. It is Kenya.
Intersex babies in Kenya
There was a time, probably not too long ago, when the duty of a Kenyan midwife was to kill an intersex baby right after birth. Then the midwife had to declare that the baby was stillborn.
It is suspected that the practice is still there in remote villages of Kenya. In the remote places, many people still consider that a baby who does not fall under a male or female trait is a curse. The baby also brings danger if kept alive.
More than a third of the Kenyan population are born outside of a hospital. In many rural areas, midwives who have no knowledge of intersex deliver babies frequently.
Zainab, the Midwife who Saved the Lives of Two Intersex Babies
The BBC story that I was talking about describes how Zainab saved two intersex babies. The parents of one of the babies wanted Zainab to kill their child right after birth.
The parents of the other baby ran away after giving birth to the child. Zainab is raising these two babies as her own. She is saving these children from the cruelty of the society.
Zainab believes God’s creations are a miracle and should never be hurt. In Zainab’s words, “I have to take care of God’s creation”. The article touched my heart. The BBC article is embedded below.
The midwife who saved intersex babies – BBC News
Five years ago a midwife in Kenya delivered a child with male and female sexual organs. The father told her to kill it, but instead she hid it and raised it as her own. Two years later, the same thing happened again. The midwife had to flee to save the children’s lives.
How common are intersex babies worldwide
It is estimated that about 1.7% of the global population have an intersex trait. That means such babies are quite common and normal.
Many intersex grown ups in USA and in many countries choose to go through surgery and some other procedures to change to female or male. Many African countries, including Kenya, have such facilities.
However, surgery is not a solution given that not having a male or female trait is not an issue in the first place. We need improved awareness regarding intersex children.
Concluding remarks
We have written a further detailed post on intersex awareness. The article can be found here: Intersex Children. Please share the article on social media to raise an awareness.
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The laws in my home country have accepted the existence of people who have both male and female body parts. The country law has allowed intersex people to gather together and raise their voice. Since a couple of years, they are demanding that they should be categorized as a third gender, the gender that is neither male nor female. The media is already popularizing the “third gender” term, however, the law is yet to accept this.
Glad to know that kind and humane steps have been taken to ensure the rights of intersex people. Accepting everyone equally and normally is the part that the society needs to stress more on now.
Thank you for sharing the information. Have a wonderful weekend.
I didn’t know that in Kenya they were forced to kill their baby, that is the most painful thing that can happen to a parent. I don’t know how they can kill their own baby!
Zainab was a heroine, she really proved to be very brave, good for her, no many women would do such a thing!
I hope Zainab is protected. What she has done is so extremely important, that I fear that the ignorant may take set on her there or deny her a livelihood which will be necessary foe her to take care of here new babies. She’s a good woman.
I hope too that Zainab is protected. Agreed that her livelihood might be threatened. My feeling is that she moved to the capital side of Kenya, where people would be more accepting. Best wishes to her and her babies. Thank you for visiting and commenting.
I think apart from being very blessed, we can also be quite naive or ignorant. I didn’t know there are people born with both male and female organs. The “practice” in Kenya is very sad. Africa seems to have many of those. We also have our share in the rural areas in South Africa but where we live, we probably even forget we are in Africa.
I agree with you that we do not know so much about what is happening around the globe. Thank you for visiting and writing a valuable comment. I am so glad that this post received such an important comment from South Africa. Have a wonderful time.
what courage it must take to save these babies and give them a chance at life albeit one of challenge.
Definitely . Thank you for visiting and commenting. Have a great week ahead.
this is one of the topics most people don’t know yet how to handle… in the technical matters humans develop so quickly but in the sphere of nature, ethics, openness to everything what is uncommon we are still taking baby steps
I definitely agree with you. Thanks for visiting and commenting. Have a wonderful Sunday.