Everyone is happy at this maternity home

BANGALORE: Just off Cox Town Main Road is a small Maternity Home that is taken care by BBMP.The hospital functions as a Primary Health Centre. In other words, it does not cater to emergencies.However, with a total strength of nine staff members it seems to be managing well. The home has many posters that educate the visitor about various diseases.They also hold camps. Along one side of the drive-way are a number of benches and in the centre is a small temple.On the other side there is a park.The best part about the hospital is that it is clean and hygienic. There are two wards in the hospital each with 12 beds. Like most other corporation maternity homes, this too is open 24 hours a day. Though well equipped to handle normal deliveries, the hospital does lack the facility required to handle emergency cases.“We have only normal deliveries here. In case of an emergency, we send the expecting mother to the referral hospital in Ulsoor in our own ambulance. We do not perform surgeries here,” said Shivamma who has been working in the hospital for the last four years.“We usually handle about 25 to 30 deliveries a month.Till date we have not had any problems with the deliveries,” she added. The labour room is equipped with two beds. “I deliverd all my four babies here. The youngest one is four days old,” said Saira Banu, the new mother.She further added two of her four babies were born at the entrance of the hospital itself. “Most of these women arrive at here while they are in their last stages of labour,” informed Shivamma.Though the maternity home is probably be very small when compared to some of the private hospitals in the city, all the expectant mothers who come here leave without a complaint.Nineteen-year-old, Ashwini delivered her first baby yesterday. “My delivery was normal and the nurses were very helpful,” she said.Her overjoyed husband was gleaming at her bedside. “It is compulsory for a first time mother to stay in the hospital for a minimum of five days.Those who have delivered before can leave after the first three days,” explained Shivamma.When enquired about how they handle sudden emergency cases, Dr Chaitania who has been working at the home for the past five years said, “We can tell if there will be any complications in advance itself. If chances of complications are there, we send them to the Ulsoor hospital.” However, the only complaint that the staff had was of the overflow of the sewage behind the home.The local corporator, G Bhuvaneshwari was unavaible for comments.