A ‘local’ miracle: Woman gives birth in train, with help from cops, passengers
MUMBAI: “If you are late for work in Mumbai and reach the station just as the train is leaving the platform, don’t despair. You can run up to the packed compartments and find many hands unfolding like petals to pull you on board.” On Friday, 33-year-old Priya Wakchoure discovered the empathy that author Suketu Mehta wrote so evocatively on in his book Maximum City.
When Wakchoure, a resident of Atgaon, started having labour pains at 4.30 am on December 2, she and her mother boarded a local train to reach the Kalyan hospital where her delivery was scheduled. But the baby was clearly in a hurry.
“My sister’s water broke just before Titwala station,” said Mayur Pawar, Wakchoure’s brother who was waiting at the station. “By then the baby was partially out, and all the women in the compartment started assisting in the delivery.”
The train reached Titwala station two minutes later. “A woman from the first-class compartment came up to the Railway Protection Force (RPF) room and alerted us,” said Dinesh Kumar, assistant senior inspector, RPF. “Along with head constable Ram Panchpande, we went to the compartment. Panchpande then alerted the motorman to not start the train till the mother and child were safely carried out.” Meanwhile, Kumar checked the other women’s compartments and realised there was a nurse on the train. Another nurse was summoned from a private hospital near the station. “We called for a stretcher, and since there were no female railway staffers present at Titwala station, we asked a Government Railway Police (GRP) staffer from Kalyan to come to
Titwala. On the family’s insistence, the nurse from the private hospital cut the umbilical cord,” said Kumar.
The station manager, meanwhile, had made an announcement that the resumption of the journey would be delayed by a few minutes on account of an emergency situation.
“As it was difficult for my sister to get into an auto, and there was no ambulance available, we took her to a hospital on the stretcher provided by the railways. There was a hospital 300 metres away from the station so we all walked from the station with the mother and baby on the stretcher,” said Pawar.
Both mother and baby are in good health. “Priya is a housewife and her husband is in the transport business. As there was no vehicle available, they opted to travel by train,” said Pawar. “Travelling from Atgaon to Kalyan in the early hours is not difficult, as trains are not as crowded then. There wasn’t much road traffic either on the way to the hospital.”
Central Railway senior officials lauded the promptness and quick action taken by the RPF and other railway staff. Pawar said he too was grateful to everyone. “Our family is overjoyed that despite the unusual conditions in which childbirth took place, we received help in time,” he said.