Mysuru, Mar 11: In a rare incident, a high school teacher helped deliver a girl at a park in Mysuru and saved the mother and her child in the nick of time by following the guidance and instructions of a doctor from Mumbai over phone.
Mallika, a 35-year-old expectant mother from Gonikoppal in Kodagu district, was in the park opposite Mini Vidhana Soudha in Nazarabad area of Mysuru when she contracted labour pain around 8.45am. Her two other children, a boy aged 4 and a girl aged 2, were also with her when she started bleeding.
As she screamed for help, a few passersby and vendors called up ambulances and government hospitals but no help was forthcoming. As luck would have it, physical education teacher Shobha Prakash arrived just then to catch a bus to school at Navilur in Nanjangud taluk. Passers-by appealed to her to help and seeing the plight of the woman, Shobha stopped.
“I was not aware of how to go about a delivery. But a youth by the name of Karthik who was at the spot connected me with a doctor from Mumbai. He guided me on the procedure,” Shobha, a resident of JSS Layout, said.
“What pained me is that when I requested women who were watching us to help me, no one came forward. Initially, I was scared. But I was determined to help her,” she added.
“Following the doctor’s instructions, I managed to extricate the baby safely but did not know how to clamp the umbilical cord. Fortunately, by that time, an ambulance arrived and the medical staff helped,” she said. “After the delivery, I gave her hot water from my flask and she was taken to hospital.”
All through the delivery, Shobha said, “the two-year-old girl held on to her mother. She was not ready to leave her.”
Shobha later visited the mother and child in hospital and offered Rs 2,000 to the newborn. The district primary school teacher’s association also extended help.
Mallika, a resident of Aruvattoklu, had reportedly quarrelled with her husband four months ago and left home. With the baby on the way, she decided to return to him and was on her way to Mandya to meet him. Sources said she had spent the money she had and was working at a Mysuru hotel for the past three days.
“Both mother and baby are fine. As the delivery happened outside, we are closely monitoring the health of the child. Mallika’s mother has arrived and is taking care of the children,” said Dr Prameela, medical superintendent of Cheluvamba Hospital. Mallika is now in the care of the women and child development department.
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