Flooded Bihar pregnant with problems

PATNA: Floods in Bihar have become a nightmare for pregnant women with many dying during childbirth due to the lack of medical care.

Even those who gave birth have little to rejoice about as they have to share a tent with dozens of others. Chief minister Nitish Kumar has announced a cash grant of Rs11,000 for each girl child and Rs10,000 for each boy child born in relief camps. “The amount will be given to them from the chief minister’s relief fund,” he said. While Kumar claimed arrangements have been made in relief camps for institutional delivery of children, the ground reality narrates a different story.

Dozens of pregnant women have died during childbirth and many newborns have not survived in the last 20 days due to the lack of doctors and medicines. Babies and mothers who manage to survive suffer in the absence of basic facilities like milk and food. There are reports of women who stopped lactating due to the stress caused by the floods.

Sunita Devi, a pregnant woman in the 20s, died on Monday after battling for life for two weeks due to the apathy of government hospitals in flood-hit Supaul and Saharsa districts. Her husband, Ganesh Yadav said Sunita developed labour pains on August 23 and was admitted to a private clinic at Triveniganj, near Supaul. Doctors referred her to a government hospital where there was no one to attend to her. Yadav said his wife had suffered a miscarriage a week ago, but doctors at both the Supaul and Saharsa
hospitals did not attend to her. “She finally died in pain,” said Yadav, but “it was not an isolated case, there are several such cases here.”

“My wife cried for help, but the doctors did not give her anything. Contrary to government claims, the ground reality is horrible,” he said.