Thane:
A pregnant woman was forced to deliver her baby in an autorickshaw in the middle of the road after it got stuck in a pothole at Ulhasnagar, late on Thursday night.
At around 10 pm on Thursday, 24-year-old Sangeeta Dinesh Salve, a resident of Vadalgaon, Ulhasnagar, went into labour. She immediately hired an autorickshaw to go to the hospital, accompanied by her sister-in-law Asha.
On the way to the hospital, the autorickshaw drove into a pothole and got stuck. The impact from the pothole jerked Salve forward and she had no choice but to give birth to a baby boy on the spot.
The rickshaw driver then rushed her and the new-born baby to a government-run hospital at Ulhasnagar-4, where she was immediately admitted. Both Salve and her child were declared safe after admission.
"We were initially shocked and afraid for the mother and child's safety, but all is well," said Pramod Dalvi, a social worker who helped the mother during admission.
Amazingly, this is not the first time such an incident has taken place. An incident under similar circumstances occurred last year in Ulhasnagar as well.
Despite the Ulhasnagar Municipal Council spending more than Rs 4 crore before the monsoons to improve the condition of the city roads, these potholes continue to exist.
Pothole babiesLast October, MiD DAY reported the story of Rekha Chaudhari, an Ulhasnagar resident who gave birth under a similar setting.
On the way to the hospital, the rickshaw that Chaudhari was travelling in went on a particularly bumpy stretch of road, full of potholes. Each jerk built up pressure inside her womb, and she gave birth to a baby girl en route.