Mother Starves Baby Girl Born Without Eyes

A baby girl who was born on Sunday, August 27, with facial deformities in Kenya has died of starvation after her mother refused to breastfeed her.
A 22-year-old mother identified as Mariam Mwakombo, has reportedly starved her daughter who was born with facial deformation on August 27, to death after she allegedly refused to feed her newborn baby.
Nairobi News reported that Mariam claimed she was scared to hold or breastfeed her baby, which led to her death, as she has since been buried after being denied food for 10 hours, in the incident which happened in Kenya.
 
“She frightened me. I have never seen such a human being like that,” Nairobi News quoted her to have said.
Mariam’s uncle, Hassan Dzuya, said the baby had not been given anything to eat since she was born on Sunday morning. “We buried her outside our home to ward off bad omen associated with such kind of a child,” Dzuya said.
According to the young mother, the baby was delivered at home since the family couldn’t afford a private hospital following the strike action by the government-owned ones.
 
“My water broke while I was doing my chores and she just came out. The pregnancy was in its seventh month. I never felt any pains during her birth. But on looking at her, we realised she did not have eyes. I was dumbfounded,”said the mother.
The baby was rushed to a private hospital, but they were referred to the largest hospital in the region, Coast Provincial General.
Mariam explained that the family had no choice than to return the baby home, since they had no financial means of getting to the big hospital that they were referred to, adding that the villagers and family members advised that the baby be thrown away so that the gods would determine her (baby’s) fate.
 
“The best we could do is throw her in a dungeon in a forest. I did not name her,” the mother said, adding that she could not breastfeed the baby “lest the omen falls on me.”

Source: Tori