Woman who shunned hospital delivers 11th baby too at home

Trichy: A 45-year-old woman, who had refused hospital delivery for her 11th pregnancy, gave birth to a girl at her home in Musiri in Trichy district on Sunday night. K Shanthi is the mother to nine children including the one born on Sunday, while two others died.
According to a source from the health department, her neighbour served as a midwife. She had a normal delivery and the mother and daughter were fine.She was later admitted to a primary health centre (PHC) in Thandalaiputhur, sources said.
The officials from the health department had convinced Shanthi despite her initial refusal for hospital delivery and got her admitted at Musiri government hospital (GH) on October 25. But under the pretext of going home for a few days to celebrate Deepavali, she got discharged on November 5. Health officials had come to know that she gave birth on Monday morning and they reached Shanthi’s home and admitted her at Thandalaiputhur PHC.
The woman was said to have given her consent for sterilisation, but demanded laparoscopic sterilisation (LS) instead of puerperal sterilisation (PS) as the former is minimally invasive. “We have currently admitted her at Thandalaiputhur to give her antibiotics and immunize her daughter,” a source from the health department said. The source added that laparoscopic sterilisation is advised to be done only 40 days post-delivery and that she would be made to undergo LS on 42nd day post giving birth to the baby.
It may be recalled that on October 25, the health officials faced a tricky situation as when they had gone to Shanthi’s house to get her admitted at hospital for treatment, she ran and got into the Cauvery river. She denied hospital delivery as she feared that she would be made to undergo sterilisation and that it could lead to her suffering severe health effects.
Sources mentioned that the reason for her going home was not due to fear of sterilisation, but due to her reluctance to be admitted at Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital (MGMGH) for tertiary care. “We gave her counselling about sterilisation when she was at Musiri GH – so she was fine to undergo it. But since she was overdue at the time, we asked her to get admitted at MGMGH for delivery. She said she wanted to celebrate Deepavali at her home and left,” the source said. Meanwhile, the officials said that the woman had opted for delivery at home previously too.