Catherine Wanjala, a bold Kenyan woman has come out to narrate her ordeal in losing two of her beloved children.Wanjala said this is the most expensive part of having to live with diabetes.

Soon after her marriage in 2004, and like in every African set-up, she was expected to start a family. Wanjala soon got pregnant.

However, eight weeks into the pregnancy, her dreams of being a mother were shattered when she lost the baby.

“The pregnancy was going on well until one evening I spotted some blood. I rushed to the hospital but it was too late, I lost the baby,” she said.

Wanjala said during daytime, she had done a lot of house chores. She thought it was the straining that had caused the miscarriage.

Eager to be a mother, she got pregnant again a few months later, this time determined to bring the child to the world.

However, as fate would have it, she lost the pregnancy again.

“Losing a pregnancy twice is not an easy thing. It is the time you will see the true colours of your partner and in-laws,However, in my case, I saw God in all this painful journey. My husband and in-laws were so supportive of me. They encouraged me and held my hand throughout.”

Wanjala said her supportive husband never allowed anyone to mock her due to the problem and always prayed alongside her for God to bless them with children.

In 2005, once again, she got pregnant. As a precaution, her gynecologist directed her to undergo several tests to determine the cause of the previous miscarriages.

“A doctor from one of the city hospitals revealed that I was diabetic and it had been the major cause of the miscarriages,” Wanjala said.

Her doctor then put her under observation and medication, considering that she was pregnant.

She was put under total bed rest, and her husband had to do everything for her.

“My husband would come home during lunch hours and cook lunch for me before heading back to the office. He would also clean the house and do the laundry. It was not easy for me because I was used to doing everything by myself and now I had to depend on someone,” she said.

Being under diabetic diet, she kept off sugary foods. She also had to undergo several tests and scanning to check if the baby was doing fine.

Despite being under insulin for the last month of the pregnancy, she gave birth normally to a baby boy.

After the birth of her first child, life went back to normal, with hopes that she might have healed.

Two years later, she thought she’d got pregnant again. Her doctor informed her that the pregnancy had characteristics of a baby but in real sense, it was a tumor and they had to get rid of it by surgery.

But the doctors never operated her, as the tumor came out by itself and was later cleaned up.

She was advised not to get pregnant soon and let her womb heal completely and her hormones go back to normal.

In 2008, she again got pregnant and was immediately put on insulin and other medicine, as her blood pressure was also high.

This time, she was put to bed rest for the entire nine months, although at times she would defy doctors’ orders and run some errands by herself.

However, she noticed something unusual, whereby her bump was growing small by shrinking instead of growing big.

“I was almost on due date and the bump was too small, such that my doctor was unsure of the due date. The scan also indicated that the baby’s growth was behind by four weeks,” she said.

Her doctor suggested she undergo elective Caesarean section, as she could not go for the required 40 weeks.

But on the last weeks, everything normalised.

During the operation, the baby came out well and mature, though she weighed 1kg only and looked like a bottle and was, therefore, put on incubator.

The baby stayed in the hospital for a month, and Wanjala had to go to the hospital every morning to express milk for the baby.

However, the immunity of the child became a bit weak and she easily got sick.

Wanjala said all the stages of a child were delayed, and she has been forced to be taking the child to hospital for occupational therapy on brain stimulation.

“She started walking at the age of two and speaking at four, but I thank God it’s not a major problem or abnormality,” she said.

In 2015, she got pregnant for her third born and became a walking chemist, as she had to walk with her insulins, stripes and glucometer.

She also had a notebook where she recorded her progress, which she would present to the doctor during her clinic visits.

“On this pregnancy, she did not have any major problem, although she underwent elective surgery.”

MALEMBA MKONGO/The Star