8-month pregnant woman told baby dead in womb, delivers healthy child in field

Mumbai: Delivering baby is really painful for all mothers but for 24-year-old Samarwati Devi from a village in the Dindori district of Madhya Pradesh, who was eight months pregnant the situation was even more perilous. The woman was forced to deliver her baby in an open field after doctors at a hospital refused to admit her, saying the unborn baby had died in the womb.

Samarwati was taken to a local district government hospital at 3 am on Monday, complaining of pains and fearing an early labour.

But reportedly doctors declared her baby had died in her womb due to stress.

The horror does not end here. Samarwati claims that she was slapped by the nurses and refused admission to the hospital, forcing her to leave in the wee hours of morning.

She said: "I went to the hospital and told them I was pain. They didn’t even look at me properly before they told me my child was dead inside of me. I started screaming and crying loudly, fearing their words, but the nurses slapped me and asked me to leave the hospital. I was not even admitted. They forced me to leave the hospital and I had no other option than to go."

Helpless Samarwati started to walk back home with the relatives who were accompanying her when her pains began again.

She went into labour at 5 in the morning on the pathway.

Eventually, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy in an open field with the help of relatives and a group of women who heard her screams and came to help with blankets and water.

The women used their sarees to make a temporary tent around her while she was delivering the child, for her privacy.

Locals used their knives to cut the umbilical cord, then took Samarwati and child to the same hospital which initially refused admission for a check-up.

Condemning the incident Chief Medical Officer of the government hospital, RK Mehra, said: "The incident is totally condemnable. I am taking statements off of all the staff members present on that night duty. We are probing the matter and strict action will be taken against whoever is found guilty. We will suspend the person in charge that night if needed. We do not condone this kind of treatment towards any member of the public in need."

Samarwati and her son, who is yet to be named, are now staying with relatives and enjoying spending time with each other while recovering from the traumatic labour.