Maternal Tears gives bereaved mothers room to cry

Maternal Tears founder and director Chipo Maromo

Bridget Mabanda

The Maternal Tears Organisation is providing support to ease the heartbreak of stillbirth, miscarriage or the death of a young child.

Founder and Director of the organisation, Chipo Maromo said personal experience inspired her to come up with Maternal Tears.

“Mainly, its formation is due to my personal experiences as I experienced two miscarriages and also lost a baby two days after its birth.

“I suffered, I spent months crying, grieving over my losses in all instances, so that’s what made me come up with Maternal Tears because I felt a lot of people lose their pregnancies, babies and they go through the same in silence, so I decided to break the silence,” she said.

She said the organisation was formed to give a mourning chance to women who lost babies.

People are not allowed to mourn, especially a miscarriage, according to the Zimbabwean culture and some are not even given the chance to bury the child.

Maromo said talking about it helps a lot since one does not know what happened to her child since all of the remaining work will be done by elders, who are popularly known as mambuya.

“Some are allowed to bury their children but you are not allowed to go to the grave.

“The organisation offers a platform where women can share their common problems and experiences. It offers emotional support, encouragement, we comfort each other and it offers a safe place where women can access information that is practical and helpful,” she said.

Maternal Tears gives women a chance to grieve without being judged and the organisation has professional counsellors, midwives, and psychologists.

Maromo that no woman should go the time of grieving alone because the pain is unbearable since when you realise that you are pregnant you start bonding with your babe, planning for that babe and caring for the babe.

Maromo also said people can be judgmental if one talk to someone who has not been through what you have gone through.

“We are judged being given all sorts of names like drama people, attention seeker but in actual fact, we will be in pain of losing a baby,” she added.

Maromo said that people lack counselling, especially in public hospitals.

She said the organisation would like to offer services to women immediately after losing the baby, which includes counselling, education because communities do not know what to say to somebody who has just lost a child or pregnancy.

“Some say it was not meant to be your child, but there is nothing like that, you cannot tell somebody who has just lost the baby, no.

“We need to teach the community on how to deal with the women who have lost pregnancies and babies. Those women end up having depression because they have no one top talk to because people around them keep on telling them the wrong messages,” she said

Maternal mortality in Zimbabwe is 363 per 100 000 live births, according to the Preliminary Results of the 2022 Housing and Population Census.

The United Nations Population Fund provides technical and financial support to the government through the Ministry of Health and Child Care towards the reduction of maternal and neonatal mortality.

Maromo said there is need for women empowerment as well as teaching women on where to access maternal health care.

She said some will have continuous miscarriages because they do not know where to get help, hence there is need for research centres for people to have information on their finger-tips before they get pregnant.

Maromo said there is need to educate men about rights of women to access health services.

She said she wishes to see the organisation growing to reach all women in Zimbabwe so as to get more members and ensure that no one is left behind.

“I have a vision of building centres and have counsellors 24/7. I hope and pray that this organisation can give hope to someone, who has just lost hope completely,” she said.

Maromo said counselling should be given for free and professionals at hospitals should also be taught about how to take care of pregnant women because there are some cases where people lose babies due to negligence.

In August 2022, Minister of Health and Child Care, Constantino Chiwenga was ordered to pay ZWL$900 000 in damages to woman who suffered a miscarriage because of negligence by health officials at Sally Mugabe Central Hospital in 2020.

Contrary to current advice, getting pregnant within a few months of an abortion or a miscarriage does not appear to be extra risky for the mum and baby, say researchers who have looked at recent real-life data.

The World Health Organisation recommends at least a six-month gap. This is to give the woman time to recover. But a study in PLoS Medicine, analysing 72 000 conceptions, suggests couples might safely try sooner for a baby.