Love is not enough

It's painful to see people getting married today without knowing each other's genotype. When they say Love isn't enough some think it's just mere words. You need to think of the repercussion of marrying the wrong blood group and genotype. The children you will give birth to could have a disease genotype like diabetes, sickle cell anaemia, thalassemia etc and you won't even know.

In ancient Africa when kids are of marriage age they are asked if they have anyone they love and won’t mind starting a family with. Some families chose spouses for their children, most times friends betroth their children to each other. For the former, who ask their kids who they like, they employ the service of a third person which the Yorubas call “Alarenaa”, (intermidiary) it is similar to having a matchmaker, just that each family employ an “Alarenaa” for a different purpose.

Some Alarenaa helps the groom to talk to the lady, telling her wonderful things about the guy and stating what she stands to gain by marrying him. However, the major work of an Alarenaa is to investigate the other family. They find out the family history, what they are known for in the community, and at what age do people die in the family? do they give birth to majorly girls or boys? is there any re-occurring event in the family? is there any issue of stillbirth in the family?.

After all these have been done the two tie the knot and everyone will expect things to go well since a thorough investigation was done before they got married. If the family suffers stillbirth after marriage, the wife is called names and they seek spiritual help. Using herbs and other things the next baby born might survive but live a life of constant sickness. They will call such a child an Evil child. They know nothing called “Genotype” back then. People get married without checking to see if their genotype is compatible, and the child faces the pain and stigma from society over the mistake of his parents.

We can give the excuse that it was an age when scientific advancement was something foreign to them back then. They base everything on spiritual attacks without giving a thought t medical reasons. However, the same thing is still happening today despite the awareness we are exposed to. In schools, students are taught the different blood groups and genotypes but these same students grow up and ignore the teachings when getting a partner. They date and get involved in premarital sex without caring about the different repercussions. Unprotected sex moat times leads to pregnancy. Since they involve in this without caring about their blood group or genotype, they end up giving birth to Kids that frow to hate them.

Love is not enough when going into marriage, there are so many things one needs to put into consideration before committing to another. I’m not saying people should go into a loveless marriage, but Love is just one of the ingredients of marriage. Think long term, think of the children

The children you will give birth to will have the same genotype as the ones you don't match, so where is the love?

Genotype is vital in marriage. When you marry a person with a different genotype and blood group then your children will have more than 50% chance of being sick. In other cases, it becomes a disaster for both parties, especially for the children.

The prevalence rate of some blood diseases amongst Nigerians is as high as 30%, which means that every third person has or will get this disease in his entire life.

For a country filled with "religious" people who shun abortion, getting married even after knowing your genotype and that of your spouse isn't compatible is wrong. While pregnant the genotype of the baby can be known and some countries allow abortion for such but I don't think we have many hospitals that can carry such tests, even if there are, will the family approve abortion?.

I hope the younger generation learns from the past and takes the issue of Genotype serious for the sake of the unborn ones.

Thanks for Reading! 💚💚💚

I've been occupied with some activities for some days now, hence my absence from the site. I will try to catch up with everything going on with time.