CONCOURS GÉNÉRAL SÉNÉGALAIS

1/4

SESSION 2010

10 1 CGS 08 01 Durée : 5 heures Toutes séries réunies CLASSES DE PREMIÈRE

ANGLAIS
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Habibu is lying on matting on the mud floor of her hut. The contractions are coming thick and fast now. The pain is intense, but she draws comfort from the memory that, the previous three times, the agony gave way to the peaceful, exhausted bliss of holding her baby in her arms. Her husband’s mother is on hand to help; she has, after all, given birth many times herself and seen many more children born. Water has been brought from the pump and sits in two large bowls ready to be used – one to wash the baby and the other to wash everything and everyone else ; pieces of old cloth have been gathered over the month before so as to soak up any blood and bodily fluid ; A kerosene lamp has been borrowed from a neighbor to cast any light needed on this dark west African night. The delivery itself seems to go well: a girl, Mama says, now to be heard crying. Habibu lies back and gives herself up to the pleasure of there no longer being any sharp pain, only exhaustion and discomfort, and to the satisfaction of having brought another life into the world. It is a while before Mama realizes that blood is still pumping out of Habibu, forming a widening crimson pool on the mat and the floor. She uses the rags to try to staunch the flow, to no avail. There is no sign of the placenta being delivered, as would happen within minutes of birth. Mama waits in hope for further precious minutes before realizing that the blood flow is not going to stop and there is serious danger. Alarmed now, she summons her son, who sets out on his bicycle to try to contact the nurse at the government clinic 12 kilometers away. By the time the nurse arrives, two hours have passed and it was too late for Habibu whose life has drained away