Doctors said one of the main reasons for the high number of IUDs at YCM Hospital was the fact that it receives very complicated cases from other hospitals or public healthcare centres. (Source: File)THE Yeshwantrao Chavan Memorial (YCM) Hospital run by the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation has witnessed nearly 1,400 deaths of pre-born and newborn babies in the last four years, information obtained through Right To Information (RTI) queries has revealed.
Deaths of pre-born babies, also known as ‘intra-uterine deaths’ or IUDs, account for an overwhelming number of these casualties, with the figure touching 300 every year.
After government-run Sassoon Hospital in Pune city, civic-run 750-bed YCM Hospital is the biggest one in the Pune district, catering to hundreds of patients from Maval, Mulshi, Junnar, Khed talukas and even beyond. It is the referral hospital for the entire region. Between 600 and 800 babies are born in YCM Hospital every month.
According to the RTI reply, the hospital recorded a total of 342 such deaths in 2015, of which 309 were cases of IUDs, and 352 deaths in 2016, including 326 IUDs. The total number came down to 340 in 2017 before rising again to 366 in 2018.
In its reply, the hospital has made a distinction between IUDs and stillbirths. Usually the two terms are used interchangeably, and senior doctors at the YCM Hospital said IUDs or intrauterine foetal demise was the clinical term for stillbirths. It is used to describe the death of a baby in the uterus after 20th week of gestation. While providing the figures, however, the hospital has described stillbirths as cases in which the death of the baby became known only after the birth.
YCMH doctors said there are several causes of IUD deaths. The primary ones are placental dysfunction, placental abruption, congenital birth defects, genetic abnormalities, premature births and umbilical cord complications.
Doctors said one of the main reasons for the high number of IUDs at YCM Hospital was the fact that it receives very complicated cases from other hospitals or public healthcare centres.
“YCM Hospital gets patients when they are in extremely critical condition or when their case has become complicated. And that is the reason why the figures are on higher side,” said YCMH Dean Dr Padmakar Pandit, adding that the figures should be compared with figures of other private hospitals or Sassoon Hospital to understand them in entirety”.
Senior gynaecologist Dr Vijayanti Patwardhan, who is a researcher with KEM Hospital, said the figures from YCM Hospital could not be said to be unusually high considering the number of patients, especially those with complications, it receives. “Nationally, IUD and still births are 17 per thousand and in the state, it is 4-5 per thousand.
At YCM, the figures seem to be around 3 per thousand,” she said.
Dr Patwardhan said one of the primary causes of IUDs in India was poor patient awareness. “There is poor awareness among women about pregnancy. Patients register themselves with hospitals at a late stage of pregnancy. Then, complications arising from anaemia, high blood pressure, diabetes, age, and bacterial infections are high among the pregnant women. However, in about 50 per cent of the cases, specific reasons for IUDs are not known,” she said.
