11/11/11 fails to catch fancy of expectant mothers in Jammu; Maternity wards in city didn’t see any unusual rush on ‘special day’

11/11/11 fails to catch fancy of expectant mothers in Jammu 
Maternity wards in city didn’t see any unusual rush on ‘special day’Archit Watts/TNS

Jammu, November 11
Contrary to the trend of planning the birth of babies on a unique date of birth, that is 11/11/11 (November 11, 2011), maternity hospitals in Jammu did not see any mad rush of pregnant women today.

There wasn’t any increase in the rush of delivery cases in the two maternity hospitals — SMGS Hospital in Shalamar and Government Hospital in Sarwal.

“Despite the ‘numerological significance’ of the day, we did not get any request from parents to schedule the delivery of their babies today. The total number of delivery cases remained as usual, just like other normal days,” said Dr Dara Singh, Deputy Medical Superintendent, SMGS Hospital. This is the main hospital in the Jammu region which caters to a large number of gynaecological cases daily.

Dr Singh added, “Normally, we handle 30-60 delivery cases, including caesarean sections, per day. The number also remained the same today. Till 1 pm, 10 babies took birth in the hospital and not a single expectant mother had pre-planned the delivery for this day.”

Medical Superintendent of Government Hospital, Sarwal, Arun Sharma said, “The day passed off just like other days. People are more worried about their health and not even one would-be-mother took the risk to bring forward or postpone the delivery, just to give birth to the baby on this special day.”

Dr Sharma added, “Five babies took birth in the hospital today, and two of them were caesarean deliveries.”

However, Rakesh Kumar, who became father of a baby today, said, “We are happy that we got a baby on this special day. But, we had not scheduled the delivery for this particular day. There are a number of health-related risks involved when you pre-arrange the delivery date.”

All the new mothers too in the two hospitals were ecstatic that they had given birth to their babies on this special date. 

A newborn in the maternity ward of a hospital in Srinagar on Friday. — AFP