A hospital in Zimbabwe charges mothers in labor $5 for each scream they emit during childbirth.
The $5 fee is described as a one for "raising false alarm" within hospital walls, but the Washington Post reported that this charge is merely a way for the medical facilities to make more gains from their patients.
A new report from Transparency International released earlier this week shed light on global corruption worldwide; using a continent-by-continent breakdown, international watchdog group Transparency International surveyed 114,000 people in 107 countries about their opinion on governmental wrongdoing and transparency.
In the report, Zimbabwe is listed as one of the most corrupt countries in the world, citing a whopping 62 percent of citizens from the country who said they'd paid a bribe in the past 12 months.
Gross domestic product per capita is around $500 in the African country, and the average annual pay rate for Zimbabweans comes out to about $150. Hospitals there charge a $50 delivery fee to all patients, the Washington Post reported.
This nation, where the underemployed top out at a staggering 95 percent and poverty plauges the citizens, a mother who screams more than three times while in labor could have to fork up half of her yearly payment for delivering a child.
Transparency International did a follow-up probe into the puzzling fee, noting that women who cannot pay often mammoth hospital bills are sometimes kept at the medical facility and charged high interest rates until officials receive the money.
Because of this, Zimbabwean mothers-to-be often have home-births because they cannot afford going to a hospital.
According to a United Nations report, an average of eight mothers die in childbirth every day in Zimbabwe.
Transparency has issued a statement to the national health ministry in the African country, to which the ministry did not reply. When Transparency International called to follow up, Zimbabwe's medical organization claimed they had misplaced the letter.
Then, a representative from Transparency International organized a meeting with the deputy prime minister of Zimbabwe, who said he'd look into the matter. The NGO said that since then, they haven't hear more about the charges for screams, but the $50 delivery charge still remains in place.
