This story is from March 5, 2019

Ambulance staff, nurses help woman deliver baby on Bidar train

It takes a village to raise a child, goes the saying, but Manamma found out it takes an entire train to deliver a baby safely
Ambulance staff, nurses help woman deliver baby on Bidar train
Manamma delivered a baby girl on board Yeshwantpur-Bidar Express
KALABURAGI: It takes a village to raise a child, goes the saying, but Manamma found out it takes an entire train to deliver a baby safely. Little did the 24-year-old know that passengers of the Yeswantpur-Bidar Express would become her saviours overnight as she went into labour on the journey back home. When she alighted, it was with her first baby – a girl – and the blessings of dozens of strangers-turned-well-wishers.

Manamma, about 24, and her husband Gundhaiah, 29, boarded the train in Bengaluru around 7pm and were headed for Yadgir. The couple were headed home for the delivery and would have made it by 3.30am. Nine months pregnant, Manamma found a place to sit in the crowded compartment where many passengers were standing, jostling for space.
Around 10pm, Manamma started getting labour pains. Word travelled and reached Naveen Kumar, an emergency medical technician from Bidar, who was travelling in the same bogie. Kumar, who works with the ambulance service, saw that Manamma was minutes away from delivering the baby. On examination, he found her water (amniotic sac) had broken and the baby’s head was visible. He immediately called his friends Shashikala, Veena and Reshma, all nurses at Bidar Institute of Medical Sciences, who were travelling in a different bogie.
The nurses made Manamma lie in the passage by the door and cordoned off the area. Passengers offered towels to stop the bleeding and bedsheets to cover the mother-to-be.
Using polythene covers for gloves, he pushed her abdomen while his friends pulled the baby out, Kumar later told TOI. Within 10 minutes, they had delivered a baby girl with a robust cry, much to the relief of the parents and passengers. One of them offered a knife to cut the umbilical cord while a flower seller gave thread to tie it up. Kumar and his team collected the severed placenta in a plastic bag.
Around 11pm, the train reached Dharmavaram in Telangana where an ambulance had been called. Mother and daughter were shifted to hospital.
But that wasn’t all. Passengers came to know that Manamma and Gundhaiah were daily-wagers at construction sites, which had forced them to work late into her pregnancy. When Kumar asked them for the mother’s medical records, the couple said they had not been to a doctor during the pregnancy as they could not afford it. Hearing this, passengers pooled in money to ensure the baby was well looked after. Contributions from Rs 100 to Rs 1,000 poured in and by the time the couple alighted, the baby had her first gift of Rs 21,500.
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