Poetry
Safe Motherhood
She was conceived
By chance a female
Born unfortunately poor
Into a web of traditional values
So the local barber circumcised her
She grew up powerless
Uneducated, unfavoured
Though a genius in
Seasonal child-minding
Got pregnant prematurely
An overexposed teenager
And bled to death at labour
Of her unborn baby
In the meantime
Our men change women
Like the loins on their groins
Making prototype sons
To perpetuate this stigmatization
And unfortunate daughters
As future sacrificial lambs
To this world of male baby syndrome
Safemotherhood – save our mothers
From the snatching teeth of
Ever rising maternal deaths
Oiled daily by the unrivaled
Arm of ignorance.
• *For Third World Women
Written by Bode-law Faleyimu, Former Lecturer/Obstetrician & Gynecologist/Women Empowerment Activist/Adolescent Physician/ HIV-AIDS Activist & Care-giver. Faleyimu is a BBC African Poetry Book-Prize winner.
