JK PANORAMA SEPTEMBER ISSUE

In pain and humiliation
By Rabiya Bashir
t is early August and the heat is intolerable back accompanied by a young lady doctor.
inside the labour room of Lal Ded Hospital. The 29-year-old lady’s face is full of fear and
IYasmeena Ishtiyaq lies still on a rusty anxiety. Next to her, a female nurse stitches
metal bed and from time to time a low moan the birth canal of another lady, Asiya, a 28-
passes between her dry lips. Yasmeena, a year-old from Pulwama.
slim and fair lady, looks tidy in her wrinkled Asiya’s condition disturbs Yasmeena more. A
nightie.
nurse injects her with a local anaesthetic. A
It is evening and there is a lot of movement lady doctor arrives and takes charge. After
inside the labour room of this large hospital. half an hour, a boy was born to Yasmeena.
The doctors and the staff flow in and out of the The doctor advised the nurse to see her birth
room. A group of nurses chat at a table, a canal. She cries, bites her lip and squirms. In
cleaner mops the floor. The doctors look tired. a couple of minutes, the doctor and nurse
The hum of old ceiling fans blends in with the leave. A cleaner arrives to mop the floor below
screams of the patients.
her delivery table.
Yasmeena is perhaps the only patient in the Now, Yasmeena is calm and looking at her
room who is not screaming and crying for the new born with a weary happiness. The nurses
attention of a doctor. A young lady doctor who assisted the doctors are cheerful after
nonetheless steps in to check her. “Still you Yasmeena’s delivery. “She was a good
have to wait for a few hours,” she says. Her patient,” they say, outside the labour room.
pain gets worse. Her eyes become moist, the “She did not create any drama. Some
dry lips turn dryer and she gives a moan patients don’t have patience and create a
again: “Ya Allah! Meh Peth Kar Raham ! Bi trouble. They shriek and cry.”
Moyas! (God, Please have mercy on me, I am The data of the hospital shows that on an
dying),” she says.
average 70 – 80 surgeries are conducted
Yasmeena has travelled more than one each day.
hundred kilometers to give birth to a baby and The young lady doctor in the hospital says, “It
she was never ready to see what she has to is true that staff sometimes lose their temper.
put up with ever since she got here. “The But slapping is very rare. We are very
sights and sounds in the labour room are concerned about such bad practice. Things
terrible and disturbing,” says another woman are much better than they used to be, ten or
who gave birth to a baby two days ago. “Some even five years ago. Labour is a very painful
nurses use verbal abuse and routine violence and long-drawn-out process, the second
like slapping and pinching,” she says.
stage of labour especially is intense, and
Another woman, Naseema, a resident of sometimes the staff loses their temper.”
Khrew, was hit by a nurse when she cried in “Some women are very scared and the pain
labour. A few said they were treated like they disturbs them. In the present set up, an
were animals. “I like to go for a caesarean epidural is being given to the patients for
than face this humiliation in the labour room,” painless delivery, but it sometimes lower
says, a young women, Sadiya.
down the energy because the mother has to
Yasmeena, 29, a resident of Anantnag, had push the baby out. Most of the patients get so
felt a pain in the early morning of a recent day tired that they are not willing to try further and
and her husband decided to admit her to the the doctor rushes them straight for a C-
Lal Ded hospital, where she shared a bed section, to avoid the complications that may
with two other women. Around 1:30 PM, when lead to the loss of the baby,” says another
she felt a sharp spam of pain, her mother lady doctor. In the last three months, the total
fought with one of the nurses to get her number of births given in the hospital was
daughter into the labour ward.
24,446. Neonatal deaths were 117 and
A moment later, in the late evening, a nurse is maternal deaths were 4. Credit, Kashmir Monitor
25 September 2017 JK