Mahabubabad: Standing next to wife during labour

Mahabubabad: The days of standing outside clueless how to support your partner during her labour and delivery is passé. The government hospital in Mahabubabad comes up with the initiative of allowing the husband inside the labour room during the delivery. Although it's a widely followed phenomenon in Western countries, it's a rarity in this part of the region.

In fact, the Union Health Ministry has long ago allowed birth companions – husband of pregnant woman or any female relative - during deliveries in public health facilities to provide one-to-one support. It was aimed at reducing maternal mortality ratio (MMR) and infant mortality rate (IMR).

However, the initiative never got popular simply because many public health facilities in the country do not have adequate infrastructure to protect the privacy of other pregnant women in the labour ward.

Against this backdrop, Madhavi of Chinnamupparam of Nellikuduru mandal who is pregnant joined the government hospital in Mahabubabad on Thursday afternoon and gave birth to a baby girl late in the night. "The hospital staff helped me a lot and encouraged me to go for normal delivery. They told me to do some exercises and that helped me in normal delivery. My husband T Satyanarayana was with me during the labour and delivery. It gave me a lot of confidence," Madhavi said.

Hospital superintendent Dr Bheem Sagar said that the presence of the husband would be of immense help to the pregnant woman. It reduces the mental stress of the pregnant women during the process of childbirth. This way we can also encourage normal deliveries, he added.

When we asked Satyanarayana to accompany his wife during the delivery, he readily agreed. In fact, we allowed him to cut the umbilical cord after the baby was born. Both mother and baby are in good health, D Bheem Sagar said.