A woman and her newborn baby died soon after delivery at the Government District Headquarters Hospital here on Friday, following which the family members and relatives staged a protest against negligence by doctors.

M. Lakshmi, 31, mother of a 7-year-old son from RS Madai, was admitted to the hospital for delivery She and the newborn male baby died after caesarean section due to excessive bleeding. After the caesarean, the woman suffered postpartum hemorrhage, hospital sources said.

It was a case of delayed admission, the sources said adding the woman, who had May 7 as due date, came late to the hospital and she and the newborn died despite best efforts by a team of doctors. She was given six units of blood but could not be saved, they said. The woman, after the first delivery, had suffered four ‘dead born’ deliveries, the sources said.

Alleging lapses on the part of doctors, family members, including the woman’s husband, Murugan, a watcher in the Forest Department and relatives staged protest and refused to accept the bodies. They, however, gave up the protest and accepted the bodies after a senior forest official pacified them. Expressing concern over the death of mother and child, Collector K.Veera Raghava Rao has ordered an enquiry, sources said.