Mumbai: Retired nurse helps neighbour deliver her baby at home in Dadar

Nurse Naina Nandakumar Huddar (left) with neighbour Meena Kale who helped her assist in Pooja Mishra's delivery. Pic/Ashish Raje

A 64-year-old retired nurse in Dadar helped her neighbour delivery a baby on Wednesday morning at Dadar's Sundar Nagar Cooperative Housing Society.

The retired nurse, Naina Nandakumar Huddar, who lives on the fourth floor of the building, heard someone banging on the door of neighbour Pooja Vijay Mishra's door around 7.30 am. When she and other neighbours went to inspect, they found Mishra's brother who informed them that she was in labour. The door was locked from inside and Mishra, who had started delivering the baby, could not move to open it.

Huddar, who served 34 fours as a BMC nurse, encouraged Mishra to hold the baby close to her stomach, drag herself towards the door and unlatch it. Mishra also had her two-year-old son with her. "I saw that the baby had completely come out," Huddar told mid-day, "I went back to my house, which is on the same floor, got gloves, spirit and a pair of scissors. I used these to first cut the umbilical cord and then cleaned the placenta off the baby boy, gave him a bath and handed him to Mishra's brother."

Mishra and her baby were taken to KEM Hospital for post-delivery care. "Both, the child and the mother, were healthy," Huddar said, adding that although there was a lot of bleeding, there was no need for stitches since it was a normal delivery. "Being retired doesn't mean that I will stop helping people. If someone calls me and needs my help, I will always go to their aid."

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