Follow the second-time mom's tropical Christmas vacation – and big pregnancy reveal
Credit: Courtesy of Jessica Simpson
Updated: Saturday Dec 29, 2012 | 06:00 AM EST
By: Brooke Showell
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The director of the Pumwani Maternity Hospital, located in a hardscrabble neighborhood of downtown Nairobi, freely acknowledges what he's accused of: detaining mothers who can't pay their bills. Lazarus Omondi says it's the only way he can keep his medical center running.
Two mothers who live in a mud-wall and tin-roof slum a short walk from the maternity hospital, which is affiliated with the Nairobi City Council, told The Associated Press that Pumwani wouldn't let them leave after delivering their babies. The bills the mothers couldn't afford were $60 and $160. Guards would beat mothers with sticks who tried to leave without paying, one of the women said.
Now, a New York-based group has filed a lawsuit on the women's behalf in hopes of forcing Pumwani to stop the practice, a practice Omondi is candid about.
"We hold you and squeeze you until we get what we can get. We must be self-sufficient," Omondi said in an interview in his hospital office. "The hospital must get money to pay electricity, to pay water. We must pay our doctors and our workers."
"They stay there until they pay. They must pay," he said of the 350 mothers who give birth each week on average. "If you don't pay the hospital will collapse."
The Center for Reproductive Rights, which filed the suit this month in the High Court of Kenya, says detaining women for not paying is illegal. Pumwani is associated with the Nairobi City Council, one reason it might be able to get away with such practices, and the patients are among Nairobi's poorest with hardly anyone to stand up for them.
Maimouna Awuor was an impoverished mother of four when she was to give birth to her fifth in October 2010. Like many who live in Nairobi's slums, Awuor performs odd jobs in the hopes of earning enough money to feed her kids that day. Awuor, who is named in the lawsuit, says she had saved $12 and hoped to go to a lower-cost clinic but was turned away and sent to Pumwani. After giving birth, she couldn't pay the $60 bill, and was held with what she believes was about 60 other women and their infants.
"We were sleeping three to a bed, sometimes four," she said. "They abuse you, they call you names," she said of the hospital staff.
She said saw some women tried to flee but they were beaten by the guards and turned back. While her husband worked at a faraway refugee camp, Awuor's 9-year-old daughter took care of her siblings. A friend helped feed them, she said, while the children stayed in the family's 50-square-foot shack, where rent is $18 a month. She says she was released after 20 days after Nairobi's mayor paid her bill. Politicians in Kenya in general are expected to give out money and get a budget to do so.
A second mother named in the lawsuit, Margaret Anyoso, says she was locked up in Pumwani for six days in 2010 because she could not pay her $160 bill. Her pregnancy was complicated by a punctured bladder and heavy bleeding.
"I did not see my child until the sixth day after the surgery. The hospital staff were keeping her away from me and it was only when I caused a scene that they brought her to me," said Anyoso, a vegetable seller and a single mother with five children who makes $5 on a good day.
Anyoso said she didn't have clothes for her child so she wrapped her in a blood-stained blouse. She was released after relatives paid the bill.
One woman says she was detained for nine months and was released only after going on a hunger strike. The Center for Reproductive Rights says other hospitals also detain non-paying patients.
Judy Okal, the acting Africa director for the Center for Reproductive Rights, said her group filed the lawsuit so all Kenyan women, regardless of socio-economic status, are able to receive health care without fear of imprisonment. The hospital, the attorney general, the City Council of Nairobi and two government ministries are named in the suit.
___
Associated Press reporter Tom Odula contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Financial markets would be affected adversely if U.S. lawmakers fail to agree on a "fiscal cliff" deal before Tuesday, President Barack Obama said in an interview broadcast on Sunday, while urging Congress to act quickly to extend tax cuts for middle-class Americans.
Lawmakers are seeking a last-minute deal that would set aside $600 billion in tax increases and across-the-board government spending cuts that are set to start within days. If Congress does not make that happen, the first bill brought up in the new year would be to reduce taxes for middle-income families, Obama told NBC's "Meet the Press."
"Now I think that over the next 48 hours, my hope is that people recognize that, regardless of partisan differences, our top priority has to be to make sure that taxes on middle-class families do not go up. That would hurt our economy badly," Obama said in the interview taped on Saturday.
"We can get that done. Democrats and Republicans both say they don't want taxes to go up on middle-class families. That's something we all agree on. If we can get that done, that takes a big bite out of the 'fiscal cliff.' It avoids the worst outcomes," Obama added.
Low income tax rates first put in place under Republican former President George W. Bush are due to expire at the end of the day on Monday - the last day of 2012.
Obama said that failing to reach a deal would have a negative impact on financial markets.
"If people start seeing that on January 1st this problem still hasn't been solved, that we haven't seen the kind of deficit reduction that we could have had had the Republicans been willing to take the deal that I gave them ... then obviously that's going to have an adverse reaction in the markets," he said.
RARE SENATE SESSION ON SUNDAY
Obama met with congressional leaders at the White House on Friday and declared himself cautiously optimistic about the chances of an agreement, but he noted in the interview that nothing had materialized since then.
"I was modestly optimistic yesterday, but we don't yet see an agreement. And now the pressure's on Congress to produce," he said.
The Senate is scheduled to hold a rare Sunday session beginning at 1 p.m. EST (1800 GMT), but it was not clear whether the chamber would have fiscal-cliff legislation to act upon.
Obama sketched out what he believed to be the most likely scenarios the end the back-and-forth between both sides. Either the congressional leaders would come up with a deal, or Democrats in the Senate would bring a bill to the floor seeking an up-or-down vote to extend tax cuts for middle income earners.
"And if all else fails, if Republicans do in fact decide to block it, so that taxes on middle class families do in fact go up on January 1st, then we'll come back with a new Congress on January 4th and the first bill that will be introduced on the floor will be to cut taxes on middle class families," he said.
Obama chided Republicans for resisting his call for tax rates to go up for the top two percent of U.S. earners despite what he viewed as significant compromises on his part to cut spending and reform expensive social programs for the poor and elderly.
"They say that their biggest priority is making sure that we deal with the deficit in a serious way, but the way they're behaving is that their only priority is making sure that tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans are protected. That seems to be their only overriding, unifying theme," Obama said.
"The offers that I've made to them have been so fair that a lot of Democrats get mad at me. I mean I offered to make some significant changes to our entitlement programs in order to reduce the deficit," he said.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by David Brunnstrom)
The Singapore hospital treating the 23-year-old woman who was raped by several men in a moving bus on Dec. 16 in Delhi issued the following statement on Friday:
From Dr. Kevin Loh, chief executive officer, Mount Elizabeth Hospital:
“As of 9pm (Singapore time) on 28 Dec, the patient’s condition has taken a turn for the worse. Her vital signs are deteriorating with signs of severe organ failure. This is despite doctors fighting for her life including putting her on maximum artificial ventilation support, optimal antibiotic doses as well as stimulants which maximise her body’s capability to fight infections.”
“Her family members have been informed that her condition has deteriorated and they are currently by her side to encourage and comfort her.”
“The High Commission of India is with her and her family at this critical time. Our medical team continues to provide all possible treatment and care.”
Jason Hoppy in New York City Dec. 27
Adam Nemser/Startraks
Hoppy was photographed at a café in New York City Thursday still wearing the band on his left ring finger
The couple have a 2½-year-old daughter, Bryn.
"It brings me great sadness to say that Jason and I are separating," Frankel, 42, said in a statement Sunday. "This was an extremely difficult decision that as a woman and a mother, I have to accept as the best choice for our family."
Earlier this year, the reality star revealed to PEOPLE that marriage didn't come easily to her.
"You have to fight for everything," she said. "Our core issues are wanting the other person to be somebody they are not."
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The director of the Pumwani Maternity Hospital, located in a hardscrabble neighborhood of downtown Nairobi, freely acknowledges what he's accused of: detaining mothers who can't pay their bills. Lazarus Omondi says it's the only way he can keep his medical center running.
Two mothers who live in a mud-wall and tin-roof slum a short walk from the maternity hospital, which is affiliated with the Nairobi City Council, told The Associated Press that Pumwani wouldn't let them leave after delivering their babies. The bills the mothers couldn't afford were $60 and $160. Guards would beat mothers with sticks who tried to leave without paying, one of the women said.
Now, a New York-based group has filed a lawsuit on the women's behalf in hopes of forcing Pumwani to stop the practice, a practice Omondi is candid about.
"We hold you and squeeze you until we get what we can get. We must be self-sufficient," Omondi said in an interview in his hospital office. "The hospital must get money to pay electricity, to pay water. We must pay our doctors and our workers."
"They stay there until they pay. They must pay," he said of the 350 mothers who give birth each week on average. "If you don't pay the hospital will collapse."
The Center for Reproductive Rights, which filed the suit this month in the High Court of Kenya, says detaining women for not paying is illegal. Pumwani is associated with the Nairobi City Council, one reason it might be able to get away with such practices, and the patients are among Nairobi's poorest with hardly anyone to stand up for them.
Maimouna Awuor was an impoverished mother of four when she was to give birth to her fifth in October 2010. Like many who live in Nairobi's slums, Awuor performs odd jobs in the hopes of earning enough money to feed her kids that day. Awuor, who is named in the lawsuit, says she had saved $12 and hoped to go to a lower-cost clinic but was turned away and sent to Pumwani. After giving birth, she couldn't pay the $60 bill, and was held with what she believes was about 60 other women and their infants.
"We were sleeping three to a bed, sometimes four," she said. "They abuse you, they call you names," she said of the hospital staff.
She said saw some women tried to flee but they were beaten by the guards and turned back. While her husband worked at a faraway refugee camp, Awuor's 9-year-old daughter took care of her siblings. A friend helped feed them, she said, while the children stayed in the family's 50-square-foot shack, where rent is $18 a month. She says she was released after 20 days after Nairobi's mayor paid her bill. Politicians in Kenya in general are expected to give out money and get a budget to do so.
A second mother named in the lawsuit, Margaret Anyoso, says she was locked up in Pumwani for six days in 2010 because she could not pay her $160 bill. Her pregnancy was complicated by a punctured bladder and heavy bleeding.
"I did not see my child until the sixth day after the surgery. The hospital staff were keeping her away from me and it was only when I caused a scene that they brought her to me," said Anyoso, a vegetable seller and a single mother with five children who makes $5 on a good day.
Anyoso said she didn't have clothes for her child so she wrapped her in a blood-stained blouse. She was released after relatives paid the bill.
One woman says she was detained for nine months and was released only after going on a hunger strike. The Center for Reproductive Rights says other hospitals also detain non-paying patients.
Judy Okal, the acting Africa director for the Center for Reproductive Rights, said her group filed the lawsuit so all Kenyan women, regardless of socio-economic status, are able to receive health care without fear of imprisonment. The hospital, the attorney general, the City Council of Nairobi and two government ministries are named in the suit.
___
Associated Press reporter Tom Odula contributed to this report.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fell on Friday, putting the S&P 500 on track for a fifth straight decline, as President Barack Obama and top congressional leaders were to make a last-ditch attempt to steer the United States away from driving off the "fiscal cliff."
Obama and lawmakers will meet at the White House Friday afternoon for talks before a New Year's deadline to keep large tax hikes and spending cuts from taking effect and threatening the economy with recession.
Investors' pessimism about achieving anything more than a stop-gap deal by the deadline showed in the benchmark S&P index's 1.6 percent decline this week. The broad index was on pace for its worst weekly performance since the U.S. elections.
With time running short, members of Congress may attempt to pass a retroactive fix on tax rises and spending cuts soon after the automatic fiscal policies come into effect on January 1.
"It doesn't matter which side wins, but at this point nobody wants to play a game where there aren't rules," said Joe Costigan, director of equity research at Bryn Mawr Trust in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.
"So everybody is talking about what the prospects are for changes in the rules, but at the end of the day nothing is happening."
Highlighting Wall Street's sensitivity to developments in Washington, stocks took a dive of more than 1 percent on Thursday after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid warned a deal was unlikely before the deadline. But later the index rebounded after the House of Representatives said it hold an unusual Sunday session to work on a fiscal solution.
With many market participants away for the holiday-shortened week, volume is expected to remain light, which could exacerbate market swings.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> dropped 90.70 points, or 0.69 percent, to 13,005.61. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> lost 9.74 points, or 0.69 percent, to 1,408.36. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> fell 16.25 points, or 0.54 percent, to 2,969.66.
Market breadth was skewed to the negative, with declining stocks outnumbering gainers on the NYSE by 2,044 to 690, while on the Nasdaq, decliners outnumbered advancers 1,466 to 707.
Positive economic data failed to alter the market's downtrend.
The National Association of Realtors said contracts to buy previously owned U.S. homes rose in November to their highest level in 2-1/2 years, while a report from the Institute for Supply Management-Chicago showed business activity in the U.S. Midwest expanded in December.
Barnes & Noble Inc
MagicJack Vocaltec Ltd
Aeterna Zentaris Inc U.S.-listed shares surged 18.4 percent to $2.57 after the company said it had reached an agreement with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on a special protocol assessment by the FDA for phase 3 registration trial in endometrial cancer with AEZS-108 treatment.
(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Kenneth Barry)
Mohammed Asad/Associated Press
Members of the Islamist-dominated upper house of the Egyptian Parliament met on Wednesday.
CAIRO — President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt took responsibility on Wednesday for “mistakes” during the run-up to ratification of the new Constitution and urged Egyptians to appreciate the fierce disagreements about it as a “healthy phenomenon” of their new democracy.
Appealing for unity after the bitter debate over the charter, which was finalized by his Islamist allies over the objections of opposition parties and the Coptic Christian Church, Mr. Morsi pledged in a televised address to respect the one-third of voters who cast ballots against it. “This is their right, because Egypt of the revolution — Egypt’s people and its elected president — can never feel annoyed by the active patriotic opposition,” he said, bobbing his head between the camera and the lectern as he read from a prepared text. “We don’t want to go back to the era of the one opinion and fabricated fake majorities.”
But Mr. Morsi offered no concrete concessions, and he did not acknowledge any specific errors, saying only, “There have been mistakes here and there, and I bear responsibility.” His most tangible outreach to the opposition was an invitation to join a so-called national dialogue that has already begun under his auspices. Hussein Abdel Ghani, a spokesman for the main opposition bloc, dismissed it as “a dialogue with himself” based on “political bribes.”
Still, Mr. Morsi’s attempt at reconciliation, however vague or superficial, represented another notable step in Egypt’s political transition. Here was a recently elected politician seeking to move from the brutally partisan campaign back to the political middle. The speech echoed many American inaugural addresses.
It was a stark contrast to Mr. Morsi’s previous speech, given just 20 days ago, when he sounded far more like his predecessor, Hosni Mubarak. Then, Mr. Morsi attributed a night of deadly violence between his Islamist supporters and their opponents to a conspiracy of foreign agents, old-regime insiders and his political rivals.
“As we all welcome difference in opinion, we all reject violence and breaking the law,” Mr. Morsi said Wednesday, without blaming either side this time.
In Egypt, where previous presidents more often jailed political opponents, even Mr. Morsi’s limited mea culpa appeared to be the first of its kind in decades. The last presidential apology was President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s speech offering his short-lived resignation after the humiliation of losing the 1967 war with Israel, said Khaled Fahmy, a liberal historian at the American University in Cairo. “It is the only thing comparable in its clarity,” Mr. Fahmy said. (Nasser’s theatrical resignation was rejected in a staged plebiscite.)
But at a news conference on Wednesday that was billed as a response to Mr. Morsi, the opposition leaders said they had not even listened to the speech. Mr. Abdel Ghani said the opposition coalition leaders had been in a meeting to draft a statement calling for new protests against the Constitution on the anniversary of the uprising that overthrew Mr. Mubarak on Jan. 25.
In its statement, the coalition complained of “scandalous violations that amounted to fraud” in the referendum that approved the Constitution.
“Even if this Constitution is considered approved legally,” the coalition said, “it lacks moral legitimacy, political legitimacy and popular legitimacy because it lacks national consensus.”
But with the results confirmed, the new order began to take shape. The Islamist-dominated upper house of Parliament met on Wednesday for the first time under provisions of the Constitution that empower it to act as the legislature until the election of a new lower house. The upper house had been almost powerless under the former Constitution, but a court order disbanded the more authoritative lower house last spring while Egypt was still under military rule.
The upper house’s first move was to relocate to the lower house chambers until the new elections, which are expected to be held in two months.
The Supreme Constitutional Court accepted its reconstitution under the new charter, which removed several of the most recently appointed judges. The reduction in its size effectively purged certain judges, including some who were Mubarak loyalists appointed in recent years and one who was an outspoken opponent who was often cast in the role of a villain by the Islamists.
The court’s response to the Constitution had been a matter of some suspense. Mr. Morsi and his Islamist allies had feared that the court would strike down the assembly that was created to draw up the charter, just as it had dissolved the lower house of Parliament, or would seek to review the Constitution. In a pre-emptive strike, Mr. Morsi sought last month to temporarily elevate his own powers over the court, setting off a month of sometimes violent battles between the Islamists and their opponents.
Since then, Mr. Morsi has come under growing international pressure to compromise and resolve the tensions.
After taking a notably evenhanded tone toward Mr. Morsi and his opponents through the stormy days after his power grab, the United States State Department said this week that the onus was on Mr. Morsi to pull Egypt back together. “Democracy requires much more than simple majority rule,” said a department spokesman, Patrick Ventrell. “It requires protecting the rights and building the institutions that make democracy meaningful and durable.
“President Morsi, as the democratically elected leader of Egypt, has a special responsibility to move forward in a way that recognizes the urgent need to bridge divisions, build trust and broaden support for the political process,” he added.
Mr. Morsi declared in his speech on Wednesday that Egypt was “moving steadfastly toward democracy and pluralism.” Under the new Constitution, he said, “everyone is equal without any discrimination.”
“No matter what were the hardships of the past period, I see it as the pain of birthing the new Egypt,” Mr. Morsi said. “It is truly the dawn of the new Egypt, which has risen and is now shining.”
Cuddling with Gray – Courtesy Jenna von Oy
Celebrity blogger Jenna von Oy is a new mama!
Best known for her roles as Six on Blossom and Stevie on The Parkers, von Oy is also a musician who has released two albums and is set to publish a book, The Betweeners.
von Oy, 35, wed Brad Bratcher on Oct. 10, 2010, and resides in Nashville with her husband and five dogs.
They welcomed their first child, daughter Gray Audrey, on May 21. She is now almost 7 months old.
In her latest blog, von Oy reflects on the trials and tribulations of teething.
You can find her on Facebook and Twitter @JennavonOy, as well as posting on her weekly blog, The Cradle Chronicles.
Author’s Note: The tragedy on December 14th in my hometown of Newtown, Conn. continues to weigh heavily on my heart, as it always will. In light of it, I considered leaving my mommy blog unpublished this month; it is difficult to look beyond the grief and sorrow right now. Though I wrote this post well before the horrific incident at Sandy Hook, I wasn’t sure I was ready to offer you fun, tongue-in-cheek anecdotes about my daughter’s teething woes in the midst of such a trying time.
It is hard not to let the profound sadness overshadow everything else. But it dawns on me that this is when we need love and laughter most. It’s one of the ways we pick ourselves up and move forward, even when it appears impossible. It is one of the ways we show one another support. So I’m doing my best to find the little things that make me smile through the pain, and my daughter has been a stunning light in all of the darkness. I treasure these moments with her now, even more than before.
My heart is forever with those who lost their lives in such a violent and senseless act. As parents, I imagine every one of us is grieving in our own way right now, so I hope this month’s blog will make you smile in the middle of your pain too … if even for a moment. — Jenna
We have entered the Twilight Zone, more popularly known as: teething. It is a warped world of twisted tales and meltdowns, where one never knows if something sinister is hiding around an otherwise innocuous corner. What lurks in the shadows is often scarier than the threat one can see. For example, consider our flight to Los Angeles in October. We were preparing to head west for my little sister’s wedding, and the plane ride loomed over us menacingly.
For three evenings prior to our trip, my daughter was in teething hell, beginning at around 6 p.m. … exactly the hour our flight was scheduled to depart. Go figure! And we’re talking epic saga screaming sessions here; the poor girl wailed until she passed out from exhaustion. It was devastating for my husband and I, because there’s only so much a parent can do to ease aching gums. We felt helpless. At some point we had to take a deep breath, check our sanity at the door, and realize it’s all part of the growth process — ours as well as hers.
Needless to say, the prospect of being in a confined space (for just shy of five hours), with a potentially screaming baby, was less than thrilling. In all honesty, I’d rather have a root canal than deal with fellow passengers who are furious over a fussy baby … make that my fussy baby. Sure, I’ve heard about the folks who dole out candy to their cabin-mates as a preemptive strike. Truthfully, I’m lucky I made it out the door with my matron-of-honor dress in tow, much less a dispensable goodie bag for people I’ve never met and will likely never see again.
I’m not suggesting I don’t care about their feelings — I probably care TOO much, in fact. But there’s something about bribing folks to pretend they don’t hear my child moaning in misery that disturbs me. I have to hope the simple words, “My daughter is in pain right now” accompanied by a sincere, “Thank you for your understanding” will suffice. But I digress.
The apprehension was overwhelming as we counted down the minutes until the impending debacle. But you know what? My sweet little girl surprised us by sleeping the whole way to California. And she smiled the entire way back home! My pre-flight paranoia stressed me out far more than the flight itself. As I said before, you just never know what’s lurking in the shadows. Every now and then, I guess it winds up being something better than expected.
It amazes me just how much a few little teeth can alter the reality I’ve come to know over the last seven months. The child who was (miraculously) allowing us to sleep through the night is suddenly waking up three or four times to comfort nurse. Or, as I prefer to call it, she has begun “whining and dining.”
Though I’ve tried offering diversions, Gray isn’t interested in any of it. She’s got a one-track mind and it’s focused on the milk dispenser. That said, I’m happy to let her nurse more often if it’s reducing her suffering. The side effect of this is, of course, that I tend to resemble a zombie for the majority of the morning … or at least until I’ve had a large enough dose of caffeine to sufficiently resurrect my brain function.
Gray’s giraffe affinity – Courtesy Jenna von Oy
Another byproduct of the seemingly endless teething adventure seems to be a serious bout with separation anxiety. Gray has unexpectedly become very vocally opposed to being left with anyone else, which often includes my husband. And by that, I mean that I can’t walk out of the room without her bellowing like a banshee. Those moments typically give way to macaroni and cheese dinners, since they don’t easily allow for easy meal preparation. Or showering. Or writing a blog, for that matter.
When being more than two feet away from the “breastaurant” sends your child into spasmodic fits of shrieking and squawking, one tends to stick close to home and find every possible way to avoid the social purgatory.
There are definitely moments when no remedy, homeopathic or otherwise, seems to satisfy the teething demons. Other times, I find it merely requires the art of distraction. We’ve taken to trying every silly antic we can conjure up. This includes, but certainly isn’t limited to: making ridiculous faces, speaking in wacky cartoon voices, banging pots and pans and wildly dancing around our kitchen. I’m becoming the one-woman show no one wants to see.
So that I can reserve some of my “entertainment skills” for career opportunities, we recently invested in one of those baby activity walkers. This is much to the dismay of our pups, who bolt out of the room as soon they hear our daughter plunking away on the plastic piano keys. Our house is now filled with the cacophony of tinny children’s songs, farm noises, and dogs howling. Investing in a decent set of earplugs is sounding better and better every day.
Not that they would save me from myself, mind you … I currently have an obsession with turning everything into a catchy ditty. Brushing my teeth has become a performance worthy of Carnegie Hall, and you should hear my diaper changing song — there are multiple verses! Clearly, if I’m aggravating myself with my made up tunes, my poor husband must have the patience of Mother Teresa.
On the slightly less annoying side, we’ve strung up a bouncy seat in our kitchen doorframe, and Gray jumps around to her heart’s content. It’s as if we’ve given birth to our very own kangaroo.
Our house isn’t exempt from the fun either — every surface is coated with a thin layer of drool and, for once, I can’t credit our Basset Hound. Each room is currently strewn with a plethora teething toys, all of which somehow seem to be giraffe-related, and which my husband and I lunge for at the slightest whimper of crankiness. Gray doesn’t seem to discriminate.
In a pinch, we’ve found that an ice-cold washcloth is just as soothing to her as its more expensive, store-bought counterparts. You know when your child seems more preoccupied by the box the toy came in than the toy itself? It’s the same idea.
I recently Tweeted that dealing with a teething baby is the equivalent of playing badminton with firecrackers. I can’t say I’ve changed my mind about that. At times, it can be unpredictably explosive. That said, though the teething process is anxiety-laden for everyone involved, I must say my daughter is a trooper. More often than not, she is in good spirits and smiles through it all. I’m exceedingly thankful for that. She’s one stubborn kid, that’s for sure!
I’d like to think she knows we’re in this thing together … even when I do the crazy chicken dance, or sing stupid songs about tying my shoes.
Until next time,
– Jenna von Oy
More from Jenna’s PEOPLE.com blog series:
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The director of the Pumwani Maternity Hospital, located in a hardscrabble neighborhood of downtown Nairobi, freely acknowledges what he's accused of: detaining mothers who can't pay their bills. Lazarus Omondi says it's the only way he can keep his medical center running.
Two mothers who live in a mud-wall and tin-roof slum a short walk from the maternity hospital, which is affiliated with the Nairobi City Council, told The Associated Press that Pumwani wouldn't let them leave after delivering their babies. The bills the mothers couldn't afford were $60 and $160. Guards would beat mothers with sticks who tried to leave without paying, one of the women said.
Now, a New York-based group has filed a lawsuit on the women's behalf in hopes of forcing Pumwani to stop the practice, a practice Omondi is candid about.
"We hold you and squeeze you until we get what we can get. We must be self-sufficient," Omondi said in an interview in his hospital office. "The hospital must get money to pay electricity, to pay water. We must pay our doctors and our workers."
"They stay there until they pay. They must pay," he said of the 350 mothers who give birth each week on average. "If you don't pay the hospital will collapse."
The Center for Reproductive Rights, which filed the suit this month in the High Court of Kenya, says detaining women for not paying is illegal. Pumwani is associated with the Nairobi City Council, one reason it might be able to get away with such practices, and the patients are among Nairobi's poorest with hardly anyone to stand up for them.
Maimouna Awuor was an impoverished mother of four when she was to give birth to her fifth in October 2010. Like many who live in Nairobi's slums, Awuor performs odd jobs in the hopes of earning enough money to feed her kids that day. Awuor, who is named in the lawsuit, says she had saved $12 and hoped to go to a lower-cost clinic but was turned away and sent to Pumwani. After giving birth, she couldn't pay the $60 bill, and was held with what she believes was about 60 other women and their infants.
"We were sleeping three to a bed, sometimes four," she said. "They abuse you, they call you names," she said of the hospital staff.
She said saw some women tried to flee but they were beaten by the guards and turned back. While her husband worked at a faraway refugee camp, Awuor's 9-year-old daughter took care of her siblings. A friend helped feed them, she said, while the children stayed in the family's 50-square-foot shack, where rent is $18 a month. She says she was released after 20 days after Nairobi's mayor paid her bill. Politicians in Kenya in general are expected to give out money and get a budget to do so.
A second mother named in the lawsuit, Margaret Anyoso, says she was locked up in Pumwani for six days in 2010 because she could not pay her $160 bill. Her pregnancy was complicated by a punctured bladder and heavy bleeding.
"I did not see my child until the sixth day after the surgery. The hospital staff were keeping her away from me and it was only when I caused a scene that they brought her to me," said Anyoso, a vegetable seller and a single mother with five children who makes $5 on a good day.
Anyoso said she didn't have clothes for her child so she wrapped her in a blood-stained blouse. She was released after relatives paid the bill.
One woman says she was detained for nine months and was released only after going on a hunger strike. The Center for Reproductive Rights says other hospitals also detain non-paying patients.
Judy Okal, the acting Africa director for the Center for Reproductive Rights, said her group filed the lawsuit so all Kenyan women, regardless of socio-economic status, are able to receive health care without fear of imprisonment. The hospital, the attorney general, the City Council of Nairobi and two government ministries are named in the suit.
___
Associated Press reporter Tom Odula contributed to this report.
Copyright © News bemuddle. All rights reserved.
Design 
And Business Directories
