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Interview with Dr.

Mitra, Neonatal Care and Paediatrics, Vani Vilas Hospital


1. What age group do you find that women come to the hospital (in case of first
pregnancies)? Is it a very young age? How does it affect them?
This is a major government hospital. Women as young as 14 years come here when
they are pregnant, but also very old, upto 38-39 years.
2. Do you find that most of them are working women or not?
Most of them are non-working. But the other thing that you find is the labour class. Of
course, they are also considered working only! Coolies, seasonal workers. Most of
them are like this only. Or they work as a maid in the houses
3. Do you find these womens health being affected by their work? Do you find that they
neglect/ignore childcare because of their jobs?
Definitely! 100%! The problem in India is that the labour class, when they are
pregnant also, they are not able to take care. Especially, with respect to all this ante-
natal and post-natal care. They keep working till the 7
th
/8
th
/9
th
months. Sometimes till
one week before delivery they keep working. Heavy labour workers (like construction
workers), they are more prone to premature deliveries: 7 months, 8 months they
deliver. So, the childs birth-weight is very less: 1-1.5 kg. Most of their pregnancy and
deliveries are complicated. All these stress factors no, hard, physical work, right up to
the day of delivery, most of them have other diseases like anaemia and all. Its a
vicious cycle.
4. How are these women able to afford their maternity care? Especially if they need
specialized care due to complications?
Forget about specialized care! They dont even get regular care most of the time. For
eg. prior to delivery they should have at least 5 visits to the doctor, certain mandatory
injections, some scans (ultrasound etc.). However, most of them get nothing even
close to this. Yesterday I had this woman form Magudi, come in. She delivered. Not
one single visit. No injections, ultrasound, nothing. No ante-natal records. She had
probably never gone to a hospital ever before in her life. When we asked her she said
that they were the working class, when would she find the time. It was her second
pregnancy. During her first pregnancy, her baby died within one hour. No
responsibility! First baby died, even then she did not take any special care this time-
no visits, not iron supplements nothing. At least she came to the hospital for delivery
though. So much bleeding! She would have died otherwise.
5. What can you say about their families? Do you find that if they have family support
they come for more visits? Are they pressured by their families into having children
early or late?
Sometimes, women are unable to tell their age itself. Theyll just say whatever comes
to their minds. If they are too young then they conceal their age. We can tell most of
the time if they are telling the truth or not. You can see if she has developed (the
mother). But if we cant we have no optin but to go by the age she tells us.
6. Which employees in this hospital are receiving maternity leave/benefits??
Most people (lower level staff) are on contract basis. They cant even take two days
casual leave in a month. If they do then their salary for that day will be cut. Central
government employees get upto 2 years maternity leave. The service for that tem is
counted and promotions are given if they are due for it. That is an excellent rule. We
are all the time saying breastfeeding, breastfeeding, breastfeeding! Six months of
exclusive breast feeding and upto 2 years otherwise. State government employees get
around 15 days paternity leave and 3-4 months maternity leave. Its too less for any
sort of breastfeeding. The state government should also have a scheme such as the
Centre.
Also, forget about government employees, there are all these women who work in the
unorganized and private sector. If they apply for more than one week leave then they
are terminated. Who will take them back to work? Maid and all, who will give them
maternity leave.
The maternity leave is not enough to translate into any real benefits in terms of
womens health.
7. Is the system of more maternity leave the only solution? What about a crche system?
Is there one at this hospital?
Here we dont have such a centre. All of this is only available for the rich people.
How is this going to be affordable for the poor people? They dont have any options.

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