TALES OF 3 PREGNANCIES . . . LIVES OF MISERY AND SUFFERING . . .

Over the last 3 days, we’ve had 3 pregnancies – in almost all of them the mother could have died . . . But, they were all lucky and as always, there are lessons to learn – almost all of them with simple solutions.

3 days back, we had a lady with rupture uterus. SD1, aged about 25 years, was in her 4^th pregnancy. And she had just one live child – a girl aged 6 years.

Her first child was born at home and had died after couple of days – this was 8 years ago. The verbal autopsy was indicative of birth asphyxia.

Second child was born at home – and she was the only child who was alive.

The third child was born at a private clinic, but the child was dead by the time they reached the health centre.

The pains started from the night. 4 am she went to a private clinic in Japla who referred her to the nearest district hospital where she was kept for about 2 hours before she was sent to NJH.

On arrival, our duty doctor, Dr Shishir was sure that the uterus had definitely ruptured and it could be a surgeon’s nightmare. He suspected bladder rupture too.

The surgery was uneventful. SD1 is making a slow recovery.

The saddest part was that SD1 took quite a lot of time going from one centre to the other because of poor roads and transportation.

Then, there was SD2, 32 years old who came with her 8^th pregnancy. Her first 4 children were alive. Then she had 3 deliveries where the baby’s head got stuck – and all of them died during birth.

However, they had taken a decision to do a hospital delivery for the next one. They somehow got hold of an ultrasound which confirmed that the present baby was also quite a large one. It was quite surprising that they came straight to NJH without stopping anywhere.

After they reached NJH, for some reason, SD2 had a very bad episode of antepartum hemorrhage. And to post her for Cesarian Section became all the more needed.

The third one happened today. 24 year MD, who had delivered about 3 years at NJH came with a obstructed labour. The family had been trying to deliver her at home since early morning. She was not from very far – maybe about 20 kms away.

MD’s first pregnancy was also obstructed, the baby had died in utero and we had to do a craniotomy to deliver the dead baby. Maybe, the family thought that the first baby would have somehow widened the birth canal – and therefore, the second delivery should not be a major issue.

When MD reached NJH, she was already in a very sorry state. The baby had passed meconium in utero and the heart rate was dipping. I was sure that I could not assure the relatives that this baby would also make it. However, the relatives opted for surgery.

I was glad that we could deliver a healthy baby by Cesarian section, although she had aspirated some meconium.

Later, I found out that all the three ladies had received intramuscular oxytocin injections at some point of time during their labour. 

3 ladies - totaling 14 pregnancies . . . Of the 14, only 6 yielded live babies . . . And as I told earlier, all the 3 ladies could have died delivering their last babies . . . 

Well, considering the trauma all these 3 ladies had undergone during their lifetime, I wonder what you would make of the story of the young man about whom I plan to write within the next couple of days . . .