The Krishnagiri district administration has decided to start an awareness campaign after a newborn died on Saturday allegedly due to septicaemia and shock after being pierced with hot needles around her navel and below the rib cage and chest by the local midwife. This age-old custom is practised “to improve the bowel movement” of newborn babies. The babies are not allowed to have the first milk produced by the mother after delivery. “Due to this, when the baby fails to have proper bowel movements, the parents allow the midwives to administer a crude form of acupuncture. In many cases, the wounds get infected and sometimes, babies die of septicaemia,” said P Ganesha Murthy, UNICEF consultant working in Krishnagiri district. It was Murthy who first noticed the critical condition of 25-year-old Neela’s baby in Mudippinayakanpalayam village. She was rushed to the Krishnagiri General Hospital, but attempts to revive her failed, and the baby died on Saturday. Collector Santosh Babu has now threatened to charge Neela and her husband, Jayaram (30), with female infanticide. “We hope this would be a deterrent against this custom,” he said. The couple has a three-year-old son. However, District Superintendent of Police P C Thenmozhi said they would decide the course of action only after getting the postmortem report.
