SSG hospital staff nurse tale of fearlessness and serve Corona patients during pregnancy

Became Corona infected gave birth to premature baby and donate milk to mothers milk bank

In Indian culture and Sanatan Dharma, Nari Shakti has been worshiped as the mother power and its strength has been glorified with sayings like Nari Tu Narayani and Nari Kabhi Na Hari. Kanan Sourav Solanki, who works as a nurse at a government hospital in Vadodara is one such example of the saying. Being pregnant she fearlessly work in the Corona ward and took care of patients before she get infected with the virus. She gave birth to a premature baby and donate extra milk to the breast milk bank after breastfeeding.  

Kanan Solanki has been working as a staff nurse at Sayaji Hospital for the last seven years. Her husband Sourav is an employee of a pharmaceutical company. The couple was deprived of child happiness despite years of marriage. So she resorted to the test tube method and became pregnant. Elaborating on the incident, the administrative nodal officer of the Covid department of Sayaji Hospital, Dr. O.B. Belim said, the Covid pandemic crisis began in March and Kanan could have taken leave to protect the fetus or sought duty in another non-hazardous ward.

But this brave woman gave priority to the service of the patients and agreed to perform her duties in the Covid ward and continued her duties till the seventh month of her pregnancy and also saved her unborn child. However in August she contracted Corona but as the symptoms were very mild she was quarantined at home and started taking prescribed treatment. Being a nurse herself, she knew how to take care of herself. An unexpected problem arise as the placenta ruptures the secretion of amniotic fluid. Kanan was aware of the seriousness of the incident. She immediately contacted a private doctor who advised her to seek help from Sayaji Hospital as she was infected with Covid.

She was admitted and Head of Gynecology Department Dr. Gokhale and Dr. Sonali’s team, seeing the seriousness of the condition decided to have a prenatal delivery in a short time. Kanan who understood the situation very well, consented to this being the only way to save his child. Dr. Gokhale and Dr. Sonali’s team conduct the procedure with great care and Kanan gave birth safely to a very weak premature baby, weighing only 1 kilogram.

It was necessary to keep the baby under ventilator care for the first 15 days to keep her alive. So it was not possible for the mother to breastfeed. With the help of a breast milk pump, the mother’s milk was collected in a bowl and the first breastfeeding was started. Pediatricians Dr. Sheila Iyer, Dr. Shwetal Parikh and Dr. Nawaz Patel utilized all the advanced traditions, including kangaroo care, to care for babies born prematurely, underweight and weak and nurtured the consciousness of life in this newborn baby named Griva.

Kangaroo care is a method of preserving and raising a newborn baby based on a natural structure like a sac attached to the mother’s body. The baby in the bag is constantly attached to the kangaroo mother’s body, and the emotional warmth of the mother’s body encourages her upbringing. In kangaroo care, a newborn baby is kept in a sack with the heart of a human mother in the same way and thus its upbringing is accelerated. A pleasant incident here was that when Kanan could not give kangaroo care to the baby for some reason, her fellow nurse sisters would take kangaroo care and enjoy motherhood.

The mother’s affection is not divided, it is constantly shared among her own and other’s offspring. The same thing happened with Kanan. She was breastfeeding more than her baby needed, so she started donating extra milk to Sayaji Hospital’s Maternal Milk Bank on a daily basis. In about 53 days, she deposited 9.23 liters of invaluable breast milk in a bank, which was distributed as a lifeline to the weak, premature babies in need of such milk. Kanan has become the largest breast milk donor in this bank.

Kanan and her newborn baby have received a 53-day marathon treatment in Sayaji and today both are healthy.