Children are seen as the pride of every married couple. In Ghana, the expectation is that as soon as you are married, at least in the next year, the woman should become pregnant.

And when children whom the Bible refers to as a gift from God finally come, there is joy and merry making. The society however turns its anger at couples who are unable to add up to their families and in Ghana that is leading to marriage breakdowns.

Then the name calling starts; barren, infertile etc. In our part of the world if there are no children women are the ones often blamed.

In this documentary, Seth Kwame Boateng looks at infertility, it causes and the way out. He has also established that the fault is not always from the women.

Infertility is a major health problem everywhere in the world. But in many societies in Africa, childlessness is considered a curse and couples without children go through a lot of humiliation.

Eva, childless for three years:
“For a woman when you get to a certain age everybody wants you to get married. Then after marriage, six months, three months, they are looking for your belly to protrude; if doesn’t then you are in trouble. Like everybody wants to have a child in our society so if you are unable to live up to that expectation, then it becomes a problem.”

After a blissful wedding, Eva was full of hope of giving birth to her third child before she turned 30. But three years on she’s yet to see this come true. And living in a culture where one’s ability to give birth is linked to their worth, Eva says the society makes her feel she is a disappointment. She weeps and cries sometimes.
 

“Psychologically I think it has affected me. When you meet people, even when they are not talking about you, you feel that they are discussing you. It’s a little bit like you are getting paranoid when people are talking about certain issues and you think they are talking about you. Family members do talk sometimes. I remember one time we visited my husband’s mother for Christmas.

When we were about to leave she said that next year when you are coming and you don’t have a child, don’t come. She couldn’t have joked about such a thing. So I only told her to pray for us and since then, I haven’t been there. I am waiting to have a baby before I go. Yes definitely. The last mother’s day in church, I wept because the priest called all mothers to come in front to bless us.

Although I take care of people and they call me Mama, you can never forget that they are not your real children. So when the priest called us, I decided not to go this year, then one lady tapped my shoulders and said lets go. When I was standing in front of the church, I was weeping into my handkerchief. It can really be bad sometimes.”

Eva’s story and more are the focus of our Hotline documentary dubbed “Childless.” It airs at 8:30am on Hotline on the Super Morning Show.