Woman gives birth in train at Mumbai's Dadar station

Mumbai: A 22-year-old Titwala resident, Sultana Khatun, who was heavily pregnant and on her way to civic-run Nair Hospital, delivered a baby girl in a running CST-bound train on Wednesday night, thanks to the help received from a Railway Protection Force (RPF) woman constable who was on night-patrol duty. The constable, Nirmala Khudchi, was travelling in Khatun’s bogey and had rushed to assist the latter after realising she was experiencing unbearable labour pains.

Khatun finally delivered around 10.30 pm, a time when the bogey she was travelling in was almost empty. The young mother had boarded the train at Matunga station on the central line, while on the way to Dadar, from where she was to catch a train on the western line to reach Mumbai Central. She gave birth to her daughter at a time the train pulled in at Dadar railway station. After the delivery, Khatun and her baby were taken to the civic-run Sion Hospital in an ambulance by Khudchi and the railway’s emergency medical service personnel.  

Khatun’s husband Irshad Muhammad, who was accompanying his wife, said, “She was travelling on the central line and was supposed to change trains at Dadar for Western line to proceed to Nair hospital, but she started labour pain in Matunga and delivered baby at Dadar railway station inside the train compartment. I was helpless.”

He added, “This is our second child. We lost our first one in the earthquake that hit the borders of Nepal where our hometown is located. We are happy and obliged to the police who has done this noble deed,” he said, adding that Khatun and the child are fine.