Meeting the medical needs of unwed mothers

NST: HOSPITALS have their fair share of unwed women who come to deliver their babies.
Kuala Lumpur Hospital’s Medical Social Work Department works with single mothers referred to it.
Its main duty is to contact and inform the mother’s family of her condition.
Senior medical social officer Harolhanam Mohamed Wahid said the family was usually given counselling to deal with the shock and to accept the baby.
"Many agree to care for the babies. Only a handful decide to give them up for adoption."
Among patients he sees daily are prostitutes, drug addicts and under-age girls who did not go for pre-natal check-ups.
Their babies are usually underweight or are HIV-positive.In 2004, the department conducted a survey on unwed mothers with 152 respondents.
They found that the number of single mothers had steadily increased over the last five years.
In 2004, there were 325 single mothers. Seventy-seven per cent were Malays, followed by Indians (six per cent), Chinese (five per cent) and others (12 per cent).
Harolhanam feels the huge disparity between races was due to non-Malays going to private hospitals.
The survey also revealed that 81 per cent were poorly educated.
"These girls are usually unemployed or can only find jobs at factories. And this is where the problems start.
"Usually, their boyfriends take them out and spend money on them and the women feel compelled to repay them in some way."