“Were they making a joke out of child birth?” asked a city-based doctor after a mother died practising home birthing at Tirupur recently.
While the police have arrested the husband and the couple who assisted them, the incident has sent shocks waves across the city, many saying it as ‘absolutely criminal and foolish’.
Giving birth to babies at home is an age-old tradition in India.
However, of late there is a recent trend of ‘home water birthing’ and the urban class is drawn to it. For proof, look into the number of YouTube videos titled, ‘Unassisted birthing’ and ‘Natural unmedicated childbirth’.
Doctors claim that such practices must be shunned, taking into account the huge risks that come with it.
Throwing caution to the wind, Tirupur couple – Krithika (28) and her husband Karthikeyan – began watching and preparing for home delivery of their second child, without the help of a doctor or midwife.
Krithika fell unconscious due to excessive bleeding and was rushed to the hospital, where the doctors declared her brought dead.
A delivery must be done with the assistance of a paediatrician, obstetrician, anesthetist and a blood bank.
It maybe noted that in India, 30 per cent mothers suffer a postpartum haemorrhage. A home delivery can be done provided you also have emergency facility at hand.
While many argue that hospitals deliberately impose cesarean section to extract more money, doctors say that in most cases the patients have the following risks: hypertension, diabetes, obesity, late marriage, cardiac problems and astrological beliefs to deliver baby at a particular time.