A profession in the funeral business means that you will inevitably be witness to some peculiar things. It’s a nightmare-inducing job not suitable for the fainthearted or those alarmed by the sight of a dead body – basically, if you couldn’t get through season one of Dexter then it’s not for you.
Not that you need to be a serial killer to be a funeral director, but a nonchalant attitude to death helps. But no matter how comfortable you are with those who have departed from this world, there is nothing that you prepare you for the horror that this funeral parlor owner discovered…
Fundile Makalana, the owner of Lindokuhle Funeral in South Africa has “been in the business for more than 20 years” but he’s never seen anything like this.
The bizarre story begins with the tragic death of 33-year-old Nomveliso Nomasonto Mdoyi. The mother-of-five was nine months pregnant at the time of her sudden death, which came shortly after she complained of breathlessness.
Shortly afterward, Makalana was entrusted with her body at his funeral parlor in preparation for her funeral which was scheduled to take place 10 days later.
But the day before the funeral Makalana made a heart-stopping discovery when he found a stillborn fetus in the deceased mother’s coffin.
“‘The baby was dead. We were so shocked and frightened that we did not even have time to look at the sex of the baby,” he explained. “I have been in the business for more than 20 years and I have never heard of a dead woman giving birth.”
While the phenomenon seems like a figment of somebody’s very overactive imagination, it’s actually possible.
Medically it’s known as a ‘postmortem foetal extrusion’, occurring as the mother’s muscles relax after death. While it has happened before, no baby has ever been known to survive a coffin birth. It remains unclear if Mdoyi’s baby could have been saved had doctors treated her differently whilst she was sick.
The shocking event was equally as traumatic for Mdoyi’s family. Her grief-stricken mother, 76-year-old Mandzala could hardly bear the horrific news. “We appeal to educated people, people who know better, to please cool us down and explain to us how it is possible for a dead woman to give birth,” she pleaded. “I am now over 70 years old and never heard of such a thing. Why is that happening to my child?”
“First, I was devastated by the untimely death of my daughter and now I got the shock of my life to learn that she had given birth while she had been dead for 10 days. What is that? God please come and intervene?” she said.
Meanwhile, those aware of the situation have claimed witchcraft had a hand to play in the bizarre birth, something the Mdoyi family have reportedly ignored, proceeding with the cremation as planned.
We wish the grieving family all the best at this difficult time and we hope they get the answers that they so desperately seek to help them put the pieces of the extraordinary story together.