he baby girl, who was born last month amid risks and complications to mentally ill parents in the Nabdam District, has found a new home at an orphanage in the Upper East Region.
She was admitted on Friday, 19 September 2025, to the Sirigu-based foster home, several kilometres away from her parents’ Nabdam hometown, Zanlerigu.
And as fate would have it, the name of the baby’s teenage-looking mother, Mercy Saah, resonates with the name of the orphanage, Mother of Mercy Babies Home.
The baby was relocated from a lonely hut at Zanlerigu, where her orphaned mother lives alone with her widowed grandmother, Bugre Tii, to the children’s home in the Kassena-Nankana West District for four reasons.
The mother, who underwent a caesarean section at the Upper East Regional Hospital in her mental health condition, appears to be unaware the baby is hers and she is unwilling to stay with the baby.
Secondly, even when encouraged to breastfeed and care for the baby, she is unable to safely do so owing to her mental illness.
Thirdly, Mercy recently suffered a string of epileptic seizures and, as the recurrent seizures completely separated her from the baby, the baby was prematurely placed on supplementary feeding.
The last reason the baby was sent to the Sirigu-based orphanage is that Mercy’s grandmother herself lacks the financial means to support both her grandchild and the newborn. A small garden, situated behind the window of her weather-beaten shelter, is all the widow has got to feed herself, Mercy and the baby.
The baby was welcomed into the orphanage after all the necessary intake procedures, which included official social welfare verification and police clearance, were completed.
Background
Mercy has been mentally ill from birth. Details about the cause of her mental health condition have been as unclear for now as what led to her parents’ deaths.
She is a familiar face in the community because she is often seen around. Until she delivered the baby, she was also known in the hilly village for her bushy hair, bare feet and her old dresses which are oftentimes stained with her menstrual blood.
Her close companion in the area has been a mentally ill man whom many describe as unaggressive as Mercy and is believed to be in his late 20s.
Mercy was examined and confirmed pregnant at the Zanlerigu Health Centre after the staff of the same public health facility spotted her and the mentally ill man making love together in an uncompleted building and chased them away but the romantic act continued elsewhere between the pair.
The examination was conducted in the presence of her unemployed aunt who initiated the visit to the health centre after she observed signs that the girl might be pregnant. When asked who impregnated her, Mercy told the health staff it was the man they found with her in the uncompleted building.
The centre helped her enroll in the national health insurance scheme immediately and followed up with antenatal care services until she was admitted in labour to the facility on Monday, 18 August 2025.
It was difficult for the centre to assess her labour progress as she was wailing loudly and preventing midwives from performing the necessary vaginal examination.
Complications set in after her blood pressure surged all of a sudden, necessitating an immediate referral to the Upper East Regional Hospital.
The regional hospital initiated induction (an artificial process that speeds up labour with medications or other means for a safe delivery) but it failed.
The baby was born three days later— Thursday, 21 August 2025— via surgical delivery and taken home, swathed in a piece of old cloth from her great-grandmother.
Support
After the delivery, a young midwife named Lydia Ayine from Zanlerigu Health Centre, paid a home visit to the baby and the family.
She felt a deep sadness witnessing the family’s hardship and how it was difficult for the old widow to persuade the girl to breastfeed the baby.
The midwife observed the girl did not recognise the baby as her own child and did not understand it was her responsibility to breastfeed the little soul.
The baby had never had any satisfying feed since her birth because, until the midwife arrived, only a few times had the girl cooperated with her grandmother to squeeze her breasts and drip milk into the baby’s mouth.
Every day, while the baby lay down crying, Mercy rather kept trying to leave the house and roam freely as she normally did. But the old woman succeeded in keeping her indoors for the baby’s sake after she dragged a wooden structure to the doorway and blocked it.
Had the old woman not taken that step, the midwife probably would not have found Mercy in the house when she arrived. During that visit, the midwife did her best to convince the girl it was her duty to feed the baby, and she guided her through breastfeeding techniques.
The midwife has continued to visit the house regularly since that day, providing their basic needs with her own resources every time she visits.
Roughly half a month ago, she drew public attention to the family’s struggles by sharing their story on social media to spark support. In response, some individuals showed concern and offered support.
Upon learning of the situation, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Nabdam, Dr. Mark Kurt Nawaane, donated baby diapers, bars of soap, a mini bag of laundry powder and Gh¢500 (USD40.73) to the family through a delegation.
But generally, the support received so far has been irregular and inadequate.
It costs Gh¢30 (USD2.44) per month to support the baby’s stay in the orphanage. The orphanage received Gh¢400 (USD32.59) as an advance payment for the baby’s care on the day of admission. The money came from the midwife and the head of the Zanlerigu Health Centre, Sylvia Mbora, as their personal contributions.
To prevent another pregnancy, the health centre has supported Mercy with family planning services.The midwife and Mercy in a video selfie.
Mercy and her weak grandmother still live under one roof, and are still in dire need of a hand from the public— just like the baby herself, who turns one month old today.
Source: Edward Adeti/Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org/Ghana
