BECE candidate gives birth moments after ICT paper (photos)

A very determined teenager, who did not want to truncate her schooling due to pregnancy, managed to finish with the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) paper, in the on-going Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) before giving birth moments later on Wednesday.

The 17-year-old gave birth to a bouncy baby boy at exactly 1:30 pm on Wednesday at the Wioso Health Centre in the Ahafo Ano South District of Ashanti Region. 

The midwife in charge of the centre, who delivered the baby, Ms Deborah Okaikai Armah, told Graphic Online that, the candidate reported at the health centre around 9:20 pm on Tuesday after she had experienced signs of labour.

The midwife after examining her observed that, she was (at the latent phase of labour) not in active labour, so she was detained till Wednesday morning.

Her father reportedly picked her from the health centre Wednesday morning to go and continue writing the exams, since she had already written Monday and Tuesday’s papers.

The move by the father, compelled the midwife and other health personnel to accompany the candidate to the exams centre. However, on reaching there, the Section A segment was over and she had to only write the section B of the paper (ICT).

Her condition compelled the midwife to intermittently visit the exams room to offer ‘sacral massage’ around her waist to keep the nerves down until she finished writing the paper.

She was rushed to the health centre after the paper where she gave birth to the bouncy baby boy.

The midwife said she gave birth through the assistance of episiotomy (normal delivery with a slight incision of the perineum).

Exhibiting a strong character and a ‘die-hard-spirit,’ the candidate continued with the rest of the papers with the assistance of the health personnel on Thursday, and successfully wrote mathematics and the Asante Twi papers with very little hitches as she went out occasionally to breastfeed the baby.

As though planned, her reception at the exams centre on arrival was greeted with “ICT baby” by her mates.

And though reluctant initially, she later bought into the idea and named the child ICT baby.

She is the second of four children of a taxi driver father and a farmer.

The District Director of Health Service for Ahafo Ano South, Mr Reuben Bedzrah, when contacted, commended the health personnel for their support to the young mother.