100 bundles of joy for Covid-19 moms at Bengaluru's Vani Vilas Hospital

The state government run Vani Vilas Hospital in Bengaluru has achieved a rare feat three hours past midnight, in the wee hours on Friday. The doctors successfully delivered the 100th baby, of Covid-19 positive mothers. The 100th baby is a boy.

The hospital doctors have tended to 350 pregnant Covid positive women so far in various stages of pregnancy. 150 Covid positive pregnant women are currently at the Trauma and Emergency Care Centre (TECC) of Victoria Hospital.

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76 of the 100 babies were born through a C-section. The operation theatre team from TECC, obstetricians and paediatricians from Vani Vilas Hospital that is adjacent to TECC work together during
deliveries. The Septic OT in TECC has been converted into a labour room and C-Sections are done in the Major Operation Theatre on the third floor.

A normal labour room has been set up opposite the C-section OT.

At 11 pm on Thursday, four Covid-19 positive women went into labour. A team of obstetricians attended to all the four deliveries back to back. When the clock struck 2.50 am, they were posing with the 100th baby in their hands, for a picture, brimming with joy.

Dr Anitha GS, Assistant Professor, Bangalore Medical College and Research Centre (BMCRI) shared a picture with DH of the newborn in her hands looking up with wide-eyed wonder.

Since the start of the pandemic, this has been their schedule: To be on call 24/7 come hell or high water for seven days with only a five-day quarantine break between their shifts. At the end of five
days if they test negative they get back to work. They work through their shifts wearing adult diapers and sanitary pads, as they cannot take a restroom break in PPEs.

The 100 babies also include four sets of twins. In all, there are 22 obstetricians who are delivering babies of mothers who have come to the hospital from districts across the state, referred by both
government and private hospitals.

Dr Anitha told DH, "We delivered the first baby of a Covid positive mother from Padarayanapura on May 9. We haven't stopped since. Delivery rooms are usually joyous with the husbands, mothers-in-law or birth companions accompanying the women in labour. But now, it's all sombre, with our inability to even talk much during delivery.

It's extremely difficult to breathe in a PPE and sit through labour, all the while counselling the mother that she will be okay. I have been a part of 47 deliveries out of the 100 deliveries at the
hospital." None of the doctors assisting in childbirth have got infected so far.

None of the newborns have tested positive for Covid-19 after birth and are all doing fine. Fortunately, none of the Covid-19 positive mothers have had complications. Some of them have recovered and gone home with their babies. Vani Vilas Hospital delivers 3,000 babies per month and its doctors are now tending to both Covid and non-Covid pregnant women.

This week alone there have been 66 deliveries and 140 admissions of Covid-19 suspected pregnant women at TECC's isolation ward. No hospital's doctors in the city are managing non-Covid, Covid suspected and Covid pregnant women together.