Bribe for child delivery and the dangers of being a woman vaccinator

Pregnant women in Zimbabwe are forced to pay bribes to healthcare workers to be offered help in childbirth. The whole sector is collapsing, the staff is going on strike, and the most basic resources are lacking. There are even reports of women giving birth outside maternity clinics. Two Zimbabwean women took the authorities to court and legally forced them to reopen 42 clinics. The Zimbabwean constitution guarantees the right to healthcare, but its quality is rapidly deteriorating, especially since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than half of the mothers in the U.K. believe that following the old wives’ myths and tricks helped them become pregnant. One in five of the polled women thinks that staying with their legs raised in the air after intercourse is beneficial for conception, and only a few percent less consider that it could be achieved via sex in a particular position. The British nutraceutical company, Vitabiotics commissioned a poll of 2000 parents.

Extreme religious leaders in Pakistan are targeting and killing female vaccinators who fight polio. Radical Islamists claim that vaccines are causing death and illness and are part of a western conspiracy while allowing women to work is against Islam. In the last week of October, over 13000 people refused to be vaccinated in the south-western district of Killa Abdullah. Pakistan remains one of the two countries in the world which yet failed to eradicate polio.