A sharing by Lily Aw
In 2017, there were 240,000 foreign domestic workers, or FDWs, in Singapore. FDWs are required to see doctors for pre-employment checks, and subsequently, for periodic screening for pregnancy and for certain infectious diseases. Naturally, they also see doctors for medical treatment.
Secret Sorrows
N met a construction worker on one of her days off. Far away from home and family, she started a romantic and sexual affair with him. The sex was consensual. At her next six monthly medical, her pregnancy test was positive.
N would not confide in her employee who she described as “very fierce”. She could not tell her agent who would definitely repatriate her if he knew about her predicament. Her boyfriend refused to take responsibility for the pregnancy and even questioned whether the baby could be his. She could not go home to her husband and family with another man’s child. N felt that she had been used and cast aside.
She eventually poured out her sorrows to some fellow FDWs who directed her to a clinic in Geylang and she had her pregnancy terminated there.
Pregnancies
Work permits for FDWs can get cancelled if they get pregnant. Therefore, pregnancy detected during a periodic pregnancy screening becomes a significant problem. Pregnancy termination in an FDW is often shrouded in secrecy for fear of undesired reactions from her partner, family, friends, employer, and agent. This puts immense pressure on the FDW to deal with negative emotions completely in isolation.
The drawing shows a weeping woman with one hand on her abdomen and the other hand holding a broom with a broken handle, with a swaddled baby in the sky and black crosses near it. It could be an FDW who has just had an abortion. The baby has an antenna on its head that still communicates with her.
If this had been an unwanted pregnancy, the abortion would have brought relief. The FDW weeps because under different circumstances, her pregnancy would have brought joy. Under the terms of her employment, pregnancy is proscribed, and she has had an abortion in order to be able to continue working.
Her religion may not condone abortion. The loss of life causes feelings of grief and the fact that she has consented to this loss causes feelings of shame and guilt.
What about the father of the child? Was she pregnant by her husband before she left her home country? Has she had an affair? Was she taken advantage of by her employer?
Her despair and frustration give rise to anger and perhaps even rage, hence the broken broomstick. Nevertheless, she has to pull herself together and get on with her life, pretending that nothing has happened.
——Dr Lily Aw
Lily Aw is the clinical lead for a Primary Care Network. For the past 30 years, she has driven across town from home to her clinic to attend to her patients. In the past 3+ years, however, her journey has included a stop to play with her granddaughter who has totally and irrevocably captured her heart.
The vignette and commentary were reproduced with permission from the book ‘Being Human, Stories from Family Medicine’ edited by Cheong Pak Yean & Ong Chooi Peng and published in 2021 by the College of Family Physicians Singapore,
Pictures of illness experiences were drawn by NUS medical students in workshops conducted from 2012-2017 by A/Prof Cheong Pak Yean. Senior family physicians subsequently shared vignettes and commentaries based on the pictures.
