While Venezuela is at the peak of a humanitarian crisis, Nicolás Maduro ordered women in the country to have “six kids” each to “grow the country.” This message comes amid the Chavista plan for a so-called “humanized birth.”
The United Nations report by Michelle Bachelet, High Commissioner for Human Rights, warns about the problem of maternal mortality in Venezuela “due to the shortage of qualified personnel to care for childbirth, the lack of medical supplies, and the conditions in hospitals.” Meanwhile, Maduro demands that women “give birth” to more kids. Currently, the country’s birth rate is around 2.2 children per woman, according to the World Bank.
En medio de la crisis humanitaria que atraviesa el país, con una desnutrición infantil de entre 13% y 16% según Unicef y Caritas, Maduro manda a las mujeres a parir masivamente.
"¡A parir, pues, a parir! ¡Todas las mujeres a tener 6 hijos!", dijo en cadena nacional. #3Mar pic.twitter.com/3Gq4zOXpYW
— Gabriel Bastidas (@Gbastidas) March 3, 2020
The tyrant said that “Venezuela’s most important asset is its pregnant women.” However, he forgot to mention the thousands of cases in which Venezuelan mothers are forced to deliver their children on the streets or outside hospitals due to lack of care.
#2Oct Confirman veracidad de imagen que esta semana escandalizó a los venezolanos,en la que se ve una sala de parto improvisada en hospital. pic.twitter.com/bdtMGelkDs
— CATERINA VALENTINO (@CATERINAV) October 2, 2017
In early 2020, a video circulated through social networks showing how a woman had to give birth on the floor because she did not receive care at the primary health care centers founded by the late President Hugo Chávez.
In October 2019, another woman gave birth to her baby in the middle of a public street after failing to get care at several public hospitals she had visited.
In 2017, a terrifying image circulated on social media that put an end to the rhetoric and hypocrisy of the Maduro regime: three pregnant women, two of them completely naked, were lying on the cold chairs of the waiting room of a hospital of the Venezuelan Institute of Social Security (IVSS). They were in full labor without medical supplies and stretchers to deliver their children.
#Caracas Funcionarios de las FAES asistieron a mujer q dio a luz en la vía pública. La mujer embarazada junto a su madre gritaban que no pudieron ser antedidas en el Hospital Pérez de León. Al momento del traslado al Hospital Domingo Luciani, la mujer da a luz mientras era pic.twitter.com/kaUWfGKS4o
— Roman Camacho (@RCamachoVzla) October 2, 2019
In July 2017, the regime launched the so-called “National Plan for Humanized Childbirth,” a program that, in the words of the government, “vindicates Venezuelan women.” But the reality is different. The condition of Venezuelan hospitals is deplorable; there are no medicines or health supplies. Venezuela does not have the proper conditions to bring a child into the world.
Over 11,000 neonatal deaths
Moreover, giving birth to a child on the floor or a chair is not the only difficulty in this South American country. After overcoming this arduous stage, we must pray that the newborns survive through the harsh conditions they face.
The number of newborn deaths in Venezuela due to the lack of medicines and various supplies is worrying. According to data published by the local press, the number of deaths among newborns increased by 30% during 2016 to a total of almost 11,500 deaths, which reflects the gravity of the Venezuelan crisis. The figures have not yet been updated; however, in 2019, 19 newborn deaths were reported at the Luis Razetti hospital in Anzoátegui state alone.
The figures of the health system show the acute health crisis that the South American country is experiencing. In 2019, at least 70% of the centers got water only once or twice a week, according to the National Survey of Hospitals. Further, 63% reported power failures. In fact, the study recorded 164 deaths that can be attributed to these failures.