Maternal Love

(Yangon General Hospital)

In a large room full of noises and patients, you can hear the screaming of a mother who's in agony from giving birth.

"Breathe, breathe. You need to keep breathing" doctors are encouraging the woman who is giving birth to a baby boy. The woman tries her best to push the baby from her stomach as half an hour pass by.

After the screaming stopped, the cry of the baby can be heard inside the room alongside other noises from patients and the doctors. The condition of the hospital is bad, there are many professional doctors needed in this place however the government is focusing on other aspects of the country so most doctors here are just students from medical universities looking for practical experience.

Many families can't afford to pay for a private room so most patients are put in a large hall like this one(Click Comments to see the picture) and even then the hospital is still full and packed with people. It's not a good resting place especially for a single mother who just gave birth however you can see the woman struggling to live for the sake of her child who will be abandoned if she died.

Orphanages are definitely not a good place to start their life especially in one of the least developed countries in the world. Most orphans only have basic education and advanced education is impossible most of the time. People don't really adopt orphans because they know that they can't love children like their biological ones.

There's also a custom in the country which is to only give inheritance to your biological children or if there are no children then to the relatives, not to the adopted ones. Of cause, not everyone's like that but finding good people is a very hard thing to do and nobody is willing to give their time and search a nice parent for one orphan. There are thousands and thousands of orphans across the country and most of their lives are already shaped into becoming low-paid workers due to being uneducated and everyone is ignorant of it because it's not their business. Living comfortably is already a luxury for these children.

The thoughts of the woman were interrupted by the approaching doctor who's holding her newborn child.

"NoNo, what is his name gonna be? " the doctor asks as he carefully hands over the newborn to the mother.

"I'm thinking of naming him Thi, Thiha Soe which means 'King Lion', I want him to be a strong man one day to face the difficulties." NoNo smiles beautifully at her precious child as she speaks."It's okay even if his life is ordinary, I will protect this child and at least teach him how to survive in this world. By the way, doctor, how much is the fee?".

The young doctor shakes his head as he speaks, "No need to pay for the fees, I have already paid for it. Aren't we neighbors, how much have we known each other? It's already been two years since you moved next door."

"Of cause Jake but you know that I don't like any helps and if I needed one, I would have gone back to my parents and live with them." The doctor sighs as he already expected such an answer from her. Since the first time, he met NoNo was due to his mother nagging him to go meet the new neighbor. Jake didn't expect to see a beautiful woman living in the small house all by herself and he was tempted to know more about her or maybe at least acquaint her. One day, as he walks back from university, Jake saw NoNo crying alone under the street light. As he was concerned about the condition of his new neighbor, he ran and asked her what's going on only to be told that she was raped by a drunk at the marketplace.

NoNo is a hardworking lady, her job in the marketplace starts around six o'clock in the morning until six o'clock in the afternoon. Today she was late to go home since the old woman who always sells beside her store is ill and went back home early so she helped to close the extra store. The marketplace is empty at this time around. Most people from the KTV near would usually use the main road to walk but today there's a local rich young master who was celebrating in there. When the young master is on the way to home drunk, he met this beautiful woman carrying large bags and so as the duty of a young master, he violated her and went back home just like that.

When the guy woke up and realized that he messed up. He bribed the KTV to not disclose the information about him and isolated himself to not get found. Of cause, the CCTV footage was already deleted even before he goes bribe that KTV.

Time passed and NoNo went back to her work again. She can't keep searching for the rapist and ignore her work because of this incident. She already did everything she could and since she can't find anything that only means the person who did this has a family background and influence. The case of sexual assaults are common and everyone knows that people with power can do whatever they want. NoNo can't afford to spend her savings on this and she knows that she will lose even if she finds that guy and sues him.

Two weeks passed and NoNo noticed she's been feeling unwell. So she went and test for pregnancy only to find the result positive. It was a tough decision to make. Whether to keep the child or abort it, life as we know it is precious although the father of this child might be a bastard for doing this, that's not the fault of this child however, on the other hand, she will need to work harder than she already has been for the future and given the situation that she is in, it's already hard for her alone to survive. In the end, she chose to keep the child not out of pity but due to her instinct. Instinct as a woman and as a human.