Kolkata: A child is supposed to see the light of the day on Saturday after growing up in its mother’s womb after nine months. However, the bad news was awaiting Navonit Singh and Rupa Biswas, a couple based in Kolkata. Just a few days before the due date, Rupa's unborn child died in her womb. The death of the foetus inside the womb is called intra-uterine fetal death, and for the first time in West Bengal, an autopsy was carried out on the foetus on July 11.
According to doctors, the cause of the death of a foetus is usually hard to find, and an autopsy of the baby even rarer. Doctors at the RG Kar Medical College will be carrying out the autopsy procedure for the unborn baby, whose body was donated by the parents. They say that this post-mortem study will push them one step closer to finding out the reason behind intra-uterine fetal deaths.
Also read: 5 things to remember when visiting newborns & their family
Physicians are hopeful that the number of such deaths will be reduced in the future as the study may provide them with some much-needed insight. The bereaved parents, Navonit Singh and Rupa Biswas hail from Rupnagar in Punjab. The couple had moved to Kolkata during Rupa's pregnancy and were receiving regular treatment and check-ups at a hospital in Behala of Kolkata.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, a relative of Rupa, Swapan Chatterjee said, “Rupa was supposed to deliver the baby on Saturday. However, on Wednesday we found out that the baby is not making any movement in the womb. The doctor told us the child had died in the womb. The most important thing for us then was to save Rupa. We rushed her to BP Poddar Hospital on July 8. On July 9 the doctor operated upon her and later handed the over stillborn baby to us.”
The death of a child inside a mother's womb is tragic and the pain caused is beyond anything one can imagine, but both parents were determined to know why the death occurred given that Rupa's pregnancy term was quite healthy. The parents donated their child's body to a welfare organisation called 'Ganadarpan'. The autopsy was performed by doctors at the RG Kar Medical College under the supervision of the head of the Forensic Department Dr Somnath Das.
