Delivering baby during Covid a challenge

Aparna Banerji

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, August 17

For a mother and child unit boasting of 500 to 600 deliveries per month, the maternity unit at the Civil Hospital is among the busiest and the most overworked in the state. However, that also makes it among the most controversial one.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, there have been 1,962 deliveries have been conducted at the Civil Hospital.

Compared to 3,840 admissions (of pregnant women) and 2,238 deliveries at the maternity ward last year, during the pandemic, there have been 2,857 admissions and 1,962 deliveries at the Civil Hospital. Among those recorded, only three of these 1,962 deliveries were of Covid-19 positive women. Of these 1,962 deliveries, 1,246 were normal deliveries and 725 are caesarians. As many as 1,244 of these were high-risk cases. As per sources, during the same period – three to four deaths of pregnant women took place at the Civil Hospital.

Lives which couldn’t be saved

Recently, a young Covid-19 positive woman and her baby died due to Septecemia. With the case too complicated for Jalandhar, the woman had been referred to Amritsar.

While there is a high incidence of complicated cases at Jalandhar being sent to the Amritsar Medical College for treatment, staff says only extremely complicated or high-risk pregnancies are referred to Amritsar. In June, amid Covid-19 hardship, a UP migrant lost his pregnant wife and child despite visiting seven hospitals in four days. When they came to the civil hospital, they were referred to Amritsar and from there; they came back to Jalandhar for treatment where the 19-year-old died.

Pregnancies during pandemic

In Jalandhar, in the months of March, April, May, June and July 2020, there have been 2857 admissions and 1962 deliveries in the gynae ward. Of these, 1,246 were normal deliveries and 725 caesarian. As many as 1,244 of these were high-risk cases.

For the corresponding months from March, April May June to July 2019, there were 3,840 admissions and 2,238 deliveries at the maternity unit last year. Of these 1,475 were normal deliveries, 808 were caesareans. As many as 1005 of these were also high-risk cases.

During the pandemic, so far, 50 to 60 Covid positive women have been admitted to the Civil Hospital, of whom three Corona positive pregnant women have given birth to three healthy babies. Two of the normal deliveries took place on July 14 and 22. One of them a caesarean happened on July 17.

Migrant mother’s testimony

For Gayatri, a 25-year-old mother at a Covid-19 ward in Kapurthala, the worries of a secure livelihood and her three children back home have quickly surpassed the fleeting pleasure that she felt after she delivered a healthy baby girl despite being Corona positive. Tragically, Gayatri cries inconsolably, vying to meet her three little daughters back home at Begowal. Her husband Ram Malak Sahni is a daily wager who can’t go to work (or to find it) as he has to tend to their three daughters as their mother nurses her newborn in an isolation ward. When asked whether she was happy she had a healthy baby during Corona, Gayatri chants, “Khushi to bahut hai (I’m very happy). But I want to go home. My little daughter cries all day and begs me to come home. My husband can’t go to seek out work as they can’t be left alone. The joy of having a healthy daughter is great. She is our fourth. But the girls back home also have to be fed. They call and cry all day. I am not feeling happy here. I just want to go home.”

Hailing from Manwani district in Bihar, Ram and Gayatri have been living in Begowal or the past 10 – 15 years. While the newborn is a Covid baby born at Kapurthala, of her three other daughters (aged 2.5 years, 3 years and 4 years) two were born at Bihar and two at Kapurthala. She says it is the first time that her husband has been without a job this long. “How can he earn while I sit here. My daughters don’t leave his side and he can’t go anywhere leaving them home. I have been here for eight to nine days. Our very livelihood depends on my going home. We have been requesting doctors to send me back,” Gayatri says.

Staff & sanitisation at mother child unit

Currently, the maternity unit at the Civil Hospital, Jalandhar, has three regular doctors and two of them are posted at Dada Colony who were posted at the ward on deputation three days a week. There are 20 to 21 staff nurses and 16 to 17 other support staff, including ward attendants and safai karmcharis. The medical officers at the mother and child unit keep changing as per rotation. What is interesting is the deputation of doctors who joined in February to the ward even as it needs experienced hands and at least five to six senior experienced doctors on a regular basis – not on deputation.

The unit has been under constant criticism due to bad state of sanitation and constant smell even after the ambitious new sprawling mother and child unit was made. While bad management is often blamed for the trouble, a doctor, on condition of anonymity, said the sanitation staff is often unduly blamed for the fiasco.

The sanitation staff can often be found cursing in the morning. The poorest of the poor get treatment here and there are repeated sanitation problems. Patients often dump wrappers, peels, plastic bottles, and other garbage under the beds and leave it heavily littered. Despite being told repeatedly, they litter wards rather than responsibly disposing garbage in the dustbins.