Reports say the 20-year-old woman from Libode in South Africa’s Eastern Cape gave birth at home where local mid-wives including the baby’s grandmother noticed that she exhibited unusual signs. Her hands are deformed and her skin wrinkled.
“When she was in labour we called an ambulance but it took long to come. So, she gave birth here at home. But the delivery got complicated and we hired a van to take her to hospital,” the baby’s grandmother recounted.
“We were told there that she’s disabled. I noticed during her birth that there was something strange with her. She did not cry and she was breathing through the ribs. I was shocked because that was strange.”
Photos of the baby have been circulating on social media with some people sympathising with her and the mother while some others chose to mock her.
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“Now I hear that people are calling her names. That hurts a lot. If I had means, I would put all of them in jail,” the baby’s unhappy grandmother lamented.
Meanwhile, the director of the children’s rights organisation, Khula Community Development Project, Petros Majola who condemned the mocking of the mother and the baby, saying it is primitive.
“Communities must know that the mother did not apply for her baby to be like this. In a woman’s womb, there is no construction or factory that builds babies. People need to embrace this child for who she is.”
The baby girl who is reported to be currently in the hospital with her mother is suffering a condition known as progeria, which causes children to age rapidly.
Progeria, also known as Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS) is a progressive genetic disorder caused by a mutation (change) in the lamin (LMNA) gene.