Behind the Headlines

Recently, a Canadian woman, Juanita Stead, mistook her stomach pains for kidney stones and was rushed to hospital only to give birth to a full-term baby. Ms Stead claimed that she did not suffer morning sickness and continued to menstruate and so she had no idea she was pregnant.

I encountered a similar claim when I interviewed a maid who gave birth in Singapore.  The routine pregnancy test she took in October turned out negative, but on 11 Dec, Nina gave birth to a baby boy she had been carrying for 27 weeks. (“The Test That Failed” Today Dec 23 )

When I asked her how she got pregnant, Nina was too dumbstruck to answer, she kept saying “I don’t know, I don’t know how.”  I switched tack and asked her about her Malaysian boyfriend. Nina told me she met Jai sometime in January last year and within weeks he proposed to her, promising her that they would get married in Dec 2008.

When I asked her whether they had used contraception during sex, Nina said no. I asked her why and she replied: “My boyfriend said that even if I got pregnant, I would still marry him, since we already agree to marry in December.”

Nina tells me that she doesn’t know the full and real name of the father of her baby and that she can’t contact him because he has changed his mobile number.

The social worker and I were floored. Was this 26-year-old so naïve? How could she be so taken in by sweet words? Not only that, did she know that she was putting herself at risk at catching sexually transmitted infections (STI), including HIV and Aids? 

It has lead me to think that despite the good work that migrant welfare groups like HOME and TWC2 have done for foreign domestic workers and foreign workers, perhaps these organisations should come up with a safe sex campaign for maids not just for preventing pregnancies, but also HIV/Aids and STIs, and make it part of their regular outreach work.

Tags: foreign domestic workers, maids, pregnancy, safe sex education

Even as the Health Promotion Board (HPB) takes on binge drinking among youth as a new area of focus this year, much can, and remains to be done within the family.

While speaking to various counsellors on this topic, the important role family members play in preventing their youth from getting into the habit of binge drinking was constantly raised.

I asked whether a binge drinking culture could develop among our youth, as it has elsewhere such as in the United Kingdom.

Ms Sheena Jebal, founder of NuLife Care and Counselling, pointed out that youth overseas live on their own after a certain age. This leaves them with the freedom to drink as they like.

However, in Singapore, most of our youth go home to a family. Parents can still know what their child is up to, and intervene, she said.

Another counsellor  also pointed out it is easiest to dissuade first-time binge drinkers. When these first-timers experience negative things like losing their handphone, getting injured, or losing their virginity after getting drunk, their remorse the morning after makes it easier to counsel them, he said.

The people best-placed to recognise these first-timers would be parents, who see them the morning after a drinking session.

If parents do not intervene, or remain unaware, then these youth could just continue binging, he said.

Ironically, as we reported as well, parents unknowingly encourage their child to binge drink when they trivialise the issue as a once-off occurrence, or if they give their child more allowance to support the habit, out of fear the child would end up stealing or prostituting himself or herself.

No doubt, handling this issue is difficult. As a counsellor said, if a parent tries to send a youth for counselling, he/she could just pack up and leave home.

Trying to educate youth on the dangers of binge drinking is especially thorny since buying drinks when one is above 18 is legal and most youth really do not seem to see bingeing as wrong, or harmful to their health.

So, while the HPB steps in, and other youth try to communicate a moderate drinking campaign, ie Get Your Sexy Back, it perhaps remains essential that family members do not see this as a good enough reason to excuse themselves from this responsibility.

Tags: binge drinking, family

Before parting company with the 179 workers abandoned in his warehouse, the landlord expressed concerns over the living conditions of other foreign workers living in dormitories around the Tagore Industrial Estate. He hoped that no one would fall ill or die as a result of the appalling conditions.

His words were somewhat prophetic: less than two weeks after the foreign workers were abandoned, a foreign worker was found dead in another dormitory in the Tagore Industrial Estate. Ten others were also hospitalised for chicken pox symptoms. Meanwhile, another 100 workers in another dormitory went hungry for more than a day, after their sub-contractor cut meal supplies.

Living conditions in these three dormitories were appalling – hundreds of them were packed together, they were not allowed to switch on the ventilation fans, and only one exit door was opened. In one dormitory, a hundred workers lived under a makeshift tent behind a factory, with only a narrow path for an escape route should a fire break out.

What appears baffling was that those around them carried on with their lives, seemingly turning a blind eye to the plight of these foreign workers. In the warehouse which the 179 workers stayed, for example, half of it had been used for a laundry business. Did the workers there, mostly locals, raise any concerns over the unhygienic living conditions? When asked, the landlord simply shrugged, and said it was the responsibility of their employer.

While we may have previously left enforcement to the authorities, how long can the public turn a blind eye to employers’ irresponsible behaviour, before another string of woes surfaces?

Tags: foreign workers