PUNCH
…I supported her, says husband
GODFREY GEORGE writes about a 28-year-old Cross River State indigene, Susan Ubangha, who accused her husband of abandoning her at the Alimosho General Hospital, Igando, Lagos State, during childbirth because he was averse to her having a C-section done, a claim her husband strongly refuted
It took Mrs Susan Ubangha three years to conceive after her marriage to her husband (name withheld) in a lavish traditional ceremony in Cross River State, in 2020.
Shock is what describes her emotions after her husband allegedly abandoned her in a hospital in Lagos State during labour.
The duo, who hail from Cross River, had decided to walk the forever journey. After a few months of courtship, he told Susan to marry him and she accepted. Parents were brought in, wines exchanged and the couple moved to Lagos where the husband was based.
Susan, a pharmacy technician, was only 25 years old, and leaving her aged mother in the village saddened her.
“I remember crying like a baby the day I was moving to Lagos to be with my husband. I don’t have any family members in Lagos. My people are all in Lagos, but I was committed to loving my husband and making sure we built a godly home, so I moved with him,” Susan, now 28 said, taking in short breaths as she did.
On moving to their Lagos home, Susan said her husband was the sweetest being she had ever met.
“He treated me well in those first months, I won’t lie to you, but things changed when I became pregnant. It was my first pregnancy after waiting for a long time and I wanted it to be as smoothly as I had envisaged it to be. So, I told my husband we had to register for antenatal care at a clinic.
“I combine my work as a pharmacy technician with hairdressing. But, I actively make more money from my hairdressing business. My husband is a businessman who always supported the family as well,” she said.
Things began to fall apart on the 35th week of her pregnancy. Susan said her husband no longer showed as much care and she had no help so she had to handle a lot of the house chores herself. Life, according to her, became unbearable.
“He just changed. I don’t know how else to explain his behaviour,” she said.
“He was just behaving in ways that even I couldn’t understand. I told him about it but he just refused to understand me. He was always irritated and his attitude changed.”
On February 9, she posted on her X account, @Pharm_prenuer, how she had a supportive partner.
She wrote, “(I am) Approaching my third trimester now, and I can’t even look at myself in the mirror. Thank God for a supportive partner.”
But speaking about how her ‘supportive partner’ allegedly abandoned her in the hospital during childbirth, she said, “I didn’t see it coming at all. You cannot blame me. All my problems started because he insisted on natural delivery.
“As it is, I don’t think I can recover from this. I only want to get better, stay alive, and take care of my child.”
Shortness of breath
Susan, on April 9, said she could not sleep because she was losing breath.
“It was as though life was leaving me; I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t breathe well. I was struggling to even keep my mouth open. I was already in my 35th week and was approaching the 40th week which was supposed to be for delivery.
“I noticed I could not stand for long. I could not even walk for a few seconds. I would either fall down or just run out of breath. It was that bad,” she said.
Five days later, she said could barely breathe and could not even lift her head. Susan also said her face was becoming pale and life was leaving her slowly.
Shortness of breath during pregnancy, according to Health Today, an online health repository, can be attributed to several factors, including hormonal changes, increased pressure on the diaphragm from the growing uterus, and elevated levels of progesterone, which stimulate the respiratory centre in the brain.
According to the resource, as the pregnancy progresses, the expanding uterus displaces the diaphragm upward, reducing lung capacity and making it more difficult to breathe deeply.
Additionally, increased blood volume and metabolic demands during pregnancy can lead to a heightened need for oxygen, further exacerbating feelings of breathlessness.
These physiological changes are normal and typically resolve after childbirth.
That was Susan’s case – pregnant and losing breath – before she was rushed that day to a clinic close by but was referred to another hospital out of fear because, according to her, the clinic could not handle her case.
