Woman police inspector becomes midwife, assists delivery on road

Inspector S Chitra of Choolaimedu police station, the head of the crime wing, did not have any experience in assisting in childbirth and never imagined the day would come where she has to play the role of a midwife. However, her profession can throw a challenge at any moment and she ‘delivered’ the latest with focus and confidence, thus saving two lives which were at risk.

She was on her patrol as usual when she found a pregnant woman crying for help at a critical stage on Nelson Manickam Road. When inquired, she told the inspector that her husband had gone to get an autorickshaw to go to Kilpauk Medical College Hospital and that she was unable to bear the pain.

Chitra decided to take the woman to the hospital in her vehicle, but she was advised against it by another women, who was in the spot, as the child’s head was already out.

Chitra then asked her driver Padmavathy to alert the ambulance and gathered the courage to attend to the emergency. She covered the woman with a towel from her vehicle and helped the woman deliver the child safely. She then cut the umbilical cord with a knife she had and tied it with a thread from the vehicle. That is when the 108 ambulance came, and her husband also reached the spot.

“It was all over in 15 minutes, but I would never forget the incident. I was not sure if I would be able do it and I did not have time to think. All that was in my mind was that two lives were at risk,” said inspector Chitra.

The woman’s husband Vasanthakumar told the inspector that her name is Banumathi and that they were from Sowrashtra Nagar. “I asked for the name and the address because I wanted to visit the child later,” she said.

Banumathi and her just-born boy have been admitted to KMC. Police said that the couple did not have a phone to call the ambulance and this was her second child. The woman officer and her driver were appreciated and rewarded by the Commissioner AK Viswanathan on Saturday. Chitra’s husband works in BSNL and she is a mother of three children.