In 2018, a rural community in the Eastern Cape of South Africa were shocked to their when news of a dead woman who gave birth inside a coffin hit. Nomveliso Nomasonto Mdoyi from the Mthayis village in Suth Africa died suddenly after shortness of breath at her home....CONTINUE READING
She was nine months pregnant at the time of her death. After her death, the 33-year old deceased mother of five went through a rare occurrence termed “Coffin Birth or postmortem fetal extrusion which is the expulsion of a fetus through the v@gina of the decomposing body of a dead pregnant woman.
This is caused by the increasing pressure of intra-abdominal gases. The Mthayisi village was unaware of this phenomenon and was disturbed at the discovery on the eve of the burial, reported local news portal Sowetan Live.
Fundile Makalana, the owner of the funeral home where the discovery was made said: “I have been in the business for more than 20 years and I have never heard of a dead woman giving birth.”
The dead woman’s mother, Mandzala Mdoyi, 76, said: “First was devastated by the untimely death of my daughter and now I got the shock of my life to learn that she has given birth while she had been dead for 10 days. What is that? God, please come and intervene.”
According to the family spokesman, Mbikelwa Moithi, they would consult both medical experts and sangomas (South-African healers) to find out more about the birth after death. “We cannot sit down and fold hands as if it is business as normal. We want to know more about this.”
The woman and her baby were buried together, despite several calls from villagers to burn them both as it was suspected it was a case of withcraft,
It is not clear whether the baby’s life could have been saved had doctors provided different treatment when the mother fell ill.
A similar case occurred in the 8th century when a pregnant woman died and was buried in the medieval Italian town of Imola.
There was nothing unusual about that. However, in 2010, when the woman’s grave was discovered, archaeologists found that a cluster of tiny bones lay between the woman’s legs – the fetus which appeared to have been born after her death…CONTINUE READING>>
