Am fuming since afternoon today. Reason is this - my cousin sister lost her kid at the last minute as the umblical chord went around the neck of the baby. She was due for her delivery on 25th. Today morning she felt that the baby is not moving. She is educated enough to figure out what that might be, but thought that she will not alarm her mother yet. Waited for a few hours and at around 10:30 had asked the doctor whether she should come for a check up given the situation.

Doc has said, 'No problems ma -may be you will get pain now (?!!!!) so you can wait and then come. Dont worry!'. But my cousin thought that may be she visit the doc in any case and so she and her mom landed up there.

Doctor has checked and then told that the heart beat is feeble, had admitted her in the hospital telling them that she will do c-section. Wont people show some kind of urgency when you detect the situation as 'diminshing fetus movement'? I saw nothing happening when I went to the hospital (I dont know what I should call this place, it is a house converted into a hospital) - my cousin was lying in a cot with her mom, my mom and another aunty around her - every one else kinda know that the baby is gone and they were not ready to tell it to her yet. No nurse, no monitoring and no action. Doc is busy seeing her regular patients. When I went to check with her about what is the condition, she shouted at me that she has already told people and I should go and talk to them to learn what it is! To top it all, there was a power cut and her c-section operation was waiting as there is no backup power of any sort. I agree that pregnancy is not a disease but then it cannot be treated like this either!

Power came at 2, but till 4, operation did not start - must have thought anyway this baby is gone , atleast let me get my daily money - Maddening and saddening. I really really wished that she had stayed in Bangalore for her delivery. Atleast there would have been a try made to get the baby alive. I am told that this one was a beautiful girl child.

We can say all that bull s*** about 'may be this one was not destined to live in this world', ' may be it did something in its last jenma and thats why it did not live', 'may be it is better this way than to have the child for few days, few months, few years and then loose' and so many things like this - but think about this, it is pure ignorance from the mom, mom's parents and the doctor(?!) which has caused the life of this little one. Think of all the dreams that the parents had for the child and the relatives. I can only shed some tears for everyone who is going to be hurt and the little one who saw the world only from the moms womb.

I used to get very irritated about people talking about 'small towns - it happens like this and that' as I'm from one, but today or rather from now on - I will have to think twice before I say anything to defend that statement.