Mumbai: A Covid-19 positive mother recently gave birth to a baby boy weighing 2.7 kg. This was the 100th baby delivered at Nair hospital which is run by Central Mumbai Municipality. Doctors said out of 100 deliveries by COVID-19 positive mothers none of the babies is infected by the virus so far.
Last month, due to the increasing cases of COVID-19 the hospital was converted into an exclusive COVID-19 facility. The hospital has provided facilities not only to pregnant women but also to many other patients from far-flung areas of Mumbai who tested positive for COVID-19, The Hindu reported.
This was a challenging task for the doctors–managing the COVID-19 pregnant women and keeping themselves protected from being infected. They took maximum care by wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) during the deliveries and disinfecting the premises after the deliveries. The mothers and babies are being kept together.
“We have allowed all COVID-19 mothers to be with the babies and breastfeed them. We are only separating babies who are sick due to prematurity or other reasons,” said Dr. Sushma Malik, head of Pediatrics. She said the mothers are asked to maintain strict hand and respiratory hygiene.
Dr. Malik said that one woman gave birth to triplets and another to twins. There was also one abortion, while one baby died after a premature birth.
Assistant medical officer, Dr. Sarika Chapane, said “We are learning to deal with the virus every day by innovating and plugging the gaps. These babies are a testimony to that.”
Naik hospital is the second hospital to reach the mark of 100 deliveries after the civic-run Sion hospital.
Sion Hospital Mumbai
The Sion Hospital at Mumbai has crossed the mark of 100 deliveries to 140.
Dr. Arun Nayak, head of gynecology at Sion Hospital said, “We had seven babies testing positive for the virus, but none of them had any symptoms. Three of them have already tested negative.” He said the babies are tested 24 hours after birth.
He added, “These don’t seem like cases of intrauterine mother-to-child transmission. To establish that we may have to test the placental tissue and take into consideration other factors. These infections are most likely due to the contact after birth.”
Doctors at both the civic hospitals are closely observing the babies and have not noticed anything peculiar due to their mothers’ COVID-19 status. “The babies are the same as those of non-COVID-19 mothers,” said Dr. Malik.