PUNE:
Pammi Tiwari, 19, had set off a scramble at the PCMC-run
YCM hospital. It was 3.30am on December 3. Worried about catching
Covid from hospitals or clinics, she had skipped critical antenatal check-ups.
Doctors quickly realised they had an emergency. Here was a young
woman with no medical records or advice, in acute labour pain.
“We rushed her in for
emergency delivery,” said YCM’s chief gynaecologist, Mahesh Asalkar.
Pammi went on to give birth to premature but healthy triplets, a completely unexpected event through normal delivery. “She first delivered the twin girls. And just when we thought the delivery was over, she started to push again. Then came the boy,” said Asalkar.
The newborns were soon moved to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
“Our emergency unit gets at least two to three pregnant women every day, who arrive with active labour pains. Since most are not registered for antenatal checks, these emergency deliveries become a daunting task,” said Rajendra Wable, dean of the YCM hospital and medical college.
The
World Health Organisation recommends that throughout pregnancy, all women should have a minimum of eight contacts with a health provider.
Pammi recovered within 48 hours of her delivery. All through their NICU stay, the triplets were fed their own mother’s milk, via tiny tubes. Paediatrician Deepali Ambike, said, “Only when the mother is sick or has inadequate milk do we need to source from a milk bank. In Pammi’s case, her positive attitude helped in milk ejection, as it is all dependent on hormone control.”
Her doctors were also impressed with the father. “Sandip cooks food at home and turns up with these nutritious dabbas three times a day to keep his wife’s energy up,” Ambike said. He is currently unemployed and the
couple, who moved to Pune from Bihar for work in 2017, is in financial distress.
But Pammi is relieved. “I want to get back home with our babies,” she said.