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While awaiting universal health coverage promised by the President, women find themselves stranded in the maternity ward because they cannot pay for their care.
Annaëlle looks up to Christivy and Christella, her twins who were born two weeks ago. She lies lengthwise on a bed at Bethesda Hospital in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Her head propped on her forearm, her gaze fixed on the blanket for a while and the wet spots she knows by heart. Brought back to reality quickly by the still painful scar from the caesarean section, she breathes a sigh of relief: “We don’t have any money to pay for the operation.”
As if in a nightmare, the 16-year-old is stuck in this cell and cannot pay the costs of her motherhood. Yvette Kilanga, his mother who visits him every day, could not cope with the unforeseen complication. “His big sister gave birth twice at the same health center,” she says. There was never a problem.” In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, nearly 64% of the population lived on less than $2.15 a day in 2021, the World Bank finds. With a $40 birth, “we can get by,” says Yvette. Paying the $150 for the cesarean is a different story.
To pay off the debt, Yvette offered her services at the health center. “I mostly do housework,” says the 50-year-old. A way for her to pay part of the prescribed medication and bring food to her daughter and other women who share her situation.
“Husbands, fathers, run away from your responsibilities”
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