Labour induced in MTP patient, to be monitored for 48 hours

Doctors at the civic-run King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital in Parel began the process of medically terminating pregnancy of the 22-year-old Mumbai woman Mira Pal following

​the ​Supreme Court (SC) judgement. The woman is in her 24th week and weighs just around 38 kg.

The expert panel at KEM that examined her found her foetus unviable and also concluded that continuing with the pregnancy could prove a risk to her life.

“Labour has been induced but the process will take around 24 to 48 hours,” said Dr Avinash Supe, dean, KEM hospital.

Mira’s husband Santosh, 38, said that the entire process has been very stressful for both of them. “After all the running around of the past few days I have also fallen ill. I have an injury in my leg. It has obviously taken a toll on her too,” he said. The process was induced on Wednesday morning and the seven member expert panel at KEM that initially examined her is overseeing the process.

Mira’s foetus has ​​anencephaly, a condition in which major parts of the brain, skull and scalp are missing and is unlikely to survive birth. The couple approached the SC court as the legal deadline to terminate pregnancy ​in India ​is 20 weeks​.   

Dr Nikhil Datar who is at the forefront of such cases explained, “At 24 weeks​,​ the process of labour is induced using the same medicines that is used during delivery. However in this case​,​ the foetus is not likely to survive birth.”  He added that the main question in such cases is that of viability – whether or not a foetus has a potential shot at survival which needs to be considered.