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Journalism of Courage
NAZIR Ahmad Shiekh may never become a father. His wife had conceived ten years after their wedding but the October 8 earthquake shattered their cherished dream. The foetus had an Intra Uterine Death IUD due to quake shock.
Nazir is not alone in his grief. While the quake claimed 1,300 lives across the Valley, the number of unaccounted deaths of foetuses is equally startling. Every time an aftershock rocks the Valley, somewhere a pregnant woman develops a complication. And while the quake devastation was mostly restricted to Uri and Tanghdar, expectant mothers all over the Valley are showing similar symptoms.
According to Dr Mehmooda Dhar, a leading gynecologist who runs a private clinic in Srinagar, about 50 per cent of her 8216;precious8217; pregnancies who had abortions before or had conceived several years after their marriage had abortions due to the quake. 8216;8216;Three other patients had an intra uterine death of their babies,8217;8217; she says. 8216;8216;I see four to five hundred patients in a month and I can tell you that there were about 20 per cent abortions among the normal patients as well.8217;8217;
Says Prof Shahida Mir, head of the gynaecology and obstetrics department at Srinagar8217;s Government Medical College: 8216;8216;This is abortion due to stress. After the quake, I went to Uri where I found a long queue of women outside hospital.8217;8217;
Dr Sitara, a gynaecologist at the Uri sub-district hospital, said a large number of pregnant women in the area had abortions. 8216;8216;In the first week after the quake there was complete chaos and we could not record the abortions. But after October 15, we have recorded 40 abortions here, mostly because of the quake,8217;8217; she says. 8216;8216;Then there are several villages which were inaccessible and pregnant women from these places could not reach here.8217;8217;
8216;8216;My wife developed a complication after the quake. Initially her condition stablised but after some days there was another tremor and the foetus got aborted,8217;8217; says Abdul Hameed Lone, a shopkeeper from Hazratbal.
Doctors say since Dilatation and Curettage DNC can be performed at district government and private clinics as well, a large number of patients approach these hospitals and clinics directly. 8216;8216;There are scores of such clinics and hospitals here and most of them received patients with these complications,8217;8217; says the owner of one such clinic at Hawal.
According to Dr Mehmooda Dhar, apart from abortions and IUDs, many patients have had pre-term labour where labour pain takes place ahead of the schedule, which can be dangerous too.
And even if an infant makes it through, her problems would not end. 8216;8216;There is a long-term problem too. The babies of those patients who have overcome the shock can suffer a stunted wth,8217;8217; she says.
