Rural India and COVID-19: Pregnant women risk long travel in search of safe hospital

For 21 year old Shalu*, the one and a half-hour car drive to cover 50 kilometres from Kalamb in Yavatmal district to a hospital in Wardha city and then further to Sevagram was an agonising one. She was due to deliver and was in labour pain. Her contractions had started, but this journey was crucial not just to safely deliver the baby, but to deliver in a ‘safe’ hospital.

Not that Kalamb lacked a government hospital or even private clinics to deal with an otherwise normal delivery. Shalu even had consultations with gynecologists in the town. Yavatmal district health center was also 20 minutes away, but the family wanted her to deliver the baby in a COVID-free city. Yavatmal is a red zone district with 79 COVID-19 cases. Wardha has not reported any cases so far.

By the time Shalu reached private Dutta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences in Sawangi in Wardha, her water had partially broken. The doctors voiced  a possibility of cesarean section in case the situation complicated. The family not having enough money to fund a surgery in a private hospital then left for Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (MGIMS) in Sevagram in Wardha district. All of this took more than three hours since Shalu first got her labour pain. She was rushed for delivery at MGIMS after triaging at the entrance and a throat swab for COVID-19 test. Fortunately, despite the travel jerks and delay in reaching a medical center, Shalu had a normal delivery.