Baby tragedies: Inside Dora Nginza’s devastating record

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Under immense pressure and facing a range of challenges, Dora Nginza Hospital has tragically recorded the highest number of perinatal deaths of any health institution in the Eastern Cape for the third year in a row.

The hospital is inundated with mothers-to-be from Gqeberha, Kariega and surrounds as well as the whole of the Sarah Baartman district.

It recorded 382 perinatal deaths in 2025, followed by Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital in Mthatha (274), KuGompo City’s Frere Hospital (204), Komani’s Frontier Hospital (151) and Cecilia Makiwane in Mdantsane (143).

Perinatal deaths include foetuses with more than 28 days of gestation or an infant who is less than a month old, and fatalities are also referred to as stillbirths and neonatal deaths.

According to health department records extracted between November 18 2025 and April 26, Dora Nginza also recorded 456 perinatal deaths in 2024 and 469 in 2023.

Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital registered 308 in 2024 and 357 in 2023.

According to healthcare workers at Dora Nginza, various factors have contributed to the crisis.

An insider said several issues had compounded the situation, such as endless strike actions, power and water outages, staffing challenges and inaccessible theatres due to long queues as a result of high demand.

“On average, they wait up to 14 days [for Caesarean sections] and by the time they get there, there are more complications,” the insider said.

“Other pregnant women do not have beds and have to sleep on chairs.

“Wards are overflowing.

“Others decide to discharge themselves and later come back with severe cases.”

He said these were recurring issues that had been raised with authorities.

“But it is always promises from authorities without delivery.

“It is tiring.”

In September 2025, The Herald reported that Helenvale mother Kimone Mutsie had lost her newborn baby at Dora Nginza after she went into premature labour on July 5.

Mutsie alleged she was left bleeding for hours on a hospital bench, given little medical assistance and later told her baby had died despite reportedly hearing the infant cry at birth.

The family was inspired to speak out after reading the article about Justine Botha, who had alleged that the ill-treatment she received at the hospital had led to the death of her child, Liam.

Botha had recounted her five-day ordeal at the hospital when she was admitted at 41 weeks pregnant on May 12 and alleged she was denied food, forced to sleep on chairs and dirty beds and left without medical assistance as the contractions intensified.

Medical staff also revealed in August 2025 that the hospital was severely understaffed in its maternity ward, which saw about 170 childbirths a week and 24 Caesareans a day.

This is despite the hospital being inundated daily with mothers-to-be from Gqeberha, Kariega and surrounds as well as the whole of the Sarah Baartman district.

More than 5,000 women gave birth at the hospital over a period of eight months in 2025, this publication reported in August, with only five midwives on duty a day — two of whom were usually assisting in theatre instead of the required eight, staff said at the time.

Labour relations organiser Thembisa Witbooi said the figures showed a systemic crisis and the contributing factors extended far beyond the shortage of staff.

Witbooi, who represents the Health and Other Services Personnel Trade Union of SA in the Eastern Cape, claimed the provincial health department had long been aware of these challenges yet allegedly continued to ignore the root causes and instead introduced cosmetic interventions that failed to resolve the deepening problems.

“It is important to note that Dora Nginza is the only regional hospital serving the entire western region of the province,” Witbooi said.

“Its catchment area stretches as far as the Great Karoo, including Graaff-Reinet and Cradock [now Nxuba], as well as Tsitsikamma and Joubertina.

“Consequently, all complicated maternal and high-risk pregnancy cases are referred to Dora.

“This places immense pressure on the institution, particularly in the context of the severe shortage of ambulances and EMS resources across the province.”

In many cases, Witbooi said, pregnant women experiencing complications endured delays in transportation, resulting in babies dying en route to the hospital due to foetal distress.

A further challenge, she said, was that the Nelson Mandela Bay district did not have a fully functional district hospital capable of managing pregnancies without complications, which were mostly natural births.

“As a result, clinics are compelled to refer patients directly to Dora Nginza, which contributes significantly to overcrowding and the continuous shortage of available beds.”

Witbooi said despite being a regional hospital, Dora Nginza was effectively rendering tertiary healthcare services that should ordinarily be provided by Livingstone Hospital, particularly within maternity services dealing with high-risk cases requiring specialists.

Under normal circumstances, Dora Nginza should only be managing pregnancies with complications that still could be monitored and managed.

“However, due to the department’s ongoing failure to address these systemic shortcomings, the hospital has effectively been forced to carry the burden of all three levels of care.

“We are further concerned that the department appears unwilling to appoint individuals with the capacity, commitment and courage to challenge and reform the current system.

“Instead, there seems to be a deliberate preservation of the status quo through the appointment of individuals who lack either the will or the capability to implement meaningful change.

“We have consistently engaged the department in good faith and have presented progressive and practical proposals aimed at resolving these challenges.

“Unfortunately, constructive engagement becomes difficult when those entrusted with leadership remain resistant to change and unwilling to implement decisive interventions.”

Eastern Cape health spokesperson Siyanda Manana said Dora Nginza remained the only facility that delivered all women with intrauterine foetal deaths — a medical condition when the foetus is no longer alive but the uterus has not yet started to expel its contents and the cervical remains closed.

“These patients are referred to Dora Nginza and are counted on Dora Nginza’s statistics even though they have been seen and diagnosed with intrauterine foetal deaths at various clinics,” Manana said.

“This increases the number of deaths counted towards the institution.”

He said all emergency and high-risk patients were referred and delivered at Dora Nginza as it was the only referral for high-risk pregnancies in the western region.

“A substantial number of women still fail to attend antenatal clinics when pregnant and thus remain unbooked.

“Others miss clinic appointments.

“This results in many conditions of pregnancy being missed or undiagnosed, leading to an increase in both maternal deaths and perinatal deaths.”

He said maternal illnesses such as diabetes or high blood pressure as a result of increased global obesity led to pregnancy complications and pre-term deliveries contributed towards perinatal and maternal deaths.

“Dora Nginza had to deal with this with its limited resources in terms of human resources and equipment,” Manana said.

“Chronic diseases like epilepsy, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases as well as hypertensive disorders when poorly controlled may necessitate early delivery to prevent the mother from dying, increasing our perinatal mortality and the rate of pre-term delivery with early neonatal deaths.

“One also needs to look at other issues such as congenital abnormalities leading to early deliveries and perinatal and neonatal deaths.

“One can never overlook these issues as they are significant contributors.”