Pregnant woman gives birth on roadside, baby dies; UP Deputy CM orders probe

Lucknow: In a shocking incident, a four-and-a-half-month pregnant woman gave birth on the roadside near the Raj Bhavan on Sunday. The baby was admitted to the Veerangana Jhalkari Bai Women and Child Hospital where she was declared dead by doctors.

The foetus was brought dead to a hospital, doctors said. 

A video of the incident surfaced on social media, drawing a sharp reaction on the state of health services in Uttar Pradesh from Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and party leader Shivpal Yadav.

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Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak, who also holds the health portfolio, confirmed the incident.

“I have taken cognisance of the incident and I am going to the spot. What I have been told by the principal secretary is that this family was going in a rickshaw and the incident took place near gate number 13 of the Raj Bhavan,” the minister said when contacted by PTI initially.

The baby was taken to Veerangana Jhalkari Bai Women and Child Hospital where she was declared dead by doctors. She was later buried at Baikunth Dhaam in Lucknow.

A doctor posted at the labour room of Veerangana Jhalkari Bai Women and Child Hospital told PTI that following the incident, the woman, Rupa Soni, underwent a check-up around 12:30 pm.

“Earlier in the day, she had gone to Shyama Prasad Mukherjee (Civil) Hospital here after experiencing pain and was administered an injection. She went home but did not get any relief,” the doctor said.

“On her way here, she delivered the baby outside the Raj Bhavan. The baby was brought dead,” the doctor said.

Deputy Chief Minister Pathak said the woman decided to take a rickshaw and not an ambulance to the hospital and some passersby outside the Raj Bhavan called an ambulance.

“The ambulance arrived in 25 minutes. They (the family) had not sought an ambulance initially and took a rickshaw,” he said, adding a probe has been ordered into the delay in the response time of the ambulance.

“Stringent action will be taken even if slight laxity is found,” he said.

Speaking to reporters at the hospital, Pathak said, “It was a premature delivery, and she had called a midwife (for delivery outside the Raj Bhavan). We will take full care of the woman and also bear the cost of her medicines.” The deputy chief minister also attended the burial of the baby.

Dr Nibedita Kar, Chief Medical Superintendent of Veerangana Jhalkari Bai Women and Child Hospital, told PTI that Soni’s condition is stable.

“The patient came here in an ambulance and was brought by some lady constables. When the lady came, we immediately took her into the labour room. The foetus, which was four-and-half to five-month-old, was dead. We took care of the mother and she is stable now,” Kar said.

SP leaders Akhilesh Yadav and Shivpal Yadav claimed the incident occurred due to the “non-availability” of an ambulance.

“One, it is Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, and that too in front of Raj Bhavan… still, owing to the non-availability of an ambulance, a pregnant lady had to give birth to a baby on the road. Would the Chief Minister like to say something on this, or say ‘for our BJP politics, a bulldozer and not an ambulance is necessary for the public’,” Akhilesh Yadav asked in a post on X, earlier known as Twitter.

Shivpal Yadav said the state’s health system is on “ventilator support”.

It is “shameful” for the entire system that a pregnant woman who was going to the hospital in a rickshaw was forced to deliver her baby on the roadside near the Raj Bhavan due to the “non-availability” of an ambulance. This is the reality of the state’s health system, he said in a post in Hindi on X.