Being the IVF specialist and the treating obstetrician to a patient is never easy on the doctor, illustrates Mangala Devi through her wrenching account of a case she had handled. Here for this piece, she speaks to our writer Shali Ittaman.

It is one thing for a doctor to help a woman achieve pregnancy. It is all together another to see her through to a successful delivery, says Dr Mangala Devi, the chief gynaecologist at Smile Baby IVF clinic in Bengaluru.

Hear her speak of the dilemma:

She remembers Lakshmi Reddy, 30, who had shown up at the clinic after repeatedly failing to conceive. Lakshmi, featured here under an assumed name, had been trying for years. Her husband and she had even been past a couple of doctors. However, nothing had worked for them.

Lakshmi challenged Dr Mangala both at the conceiving as well as at the birthing. In fact, till Lakshmi’s son arrived, there was peril for her at every turn.      

Lakshmi’s case was a difficult one from the start. “We found fibroids on her uterus during the preliminary examinations, which had recurred despite an earlier surgery,” recollects Dr Mangala.

Fibroids, a non-cancerous growth developing on the wall of the womb, are erratic: in some cases they retract when the pregnancy advances; in some, they hold steady; in yet others, they expand and grow, pressing harder against the ballooning womb, and thus endangering the mother and the baby! 

In her case, Lakshmi had hit the hard end!

Of course, she could have had the fibroids excised before trying to conceive. However, that, she interpreted as the end of ‘her only chance to be pregnant’. In any case, she was not keen on another surgery. 

“Pregnancy was uppermost on her mind. She just couldn’t be swayed from it. We even pointed her towards alternatives such as adoption and surrogacy, but she was having none of it,” says Dr Mangala.

The case in point

The fibroids had started to swell soon after Lakshmi conceived. It was causing her to bleed profusely. The more her pregnancy advanced, the more she bled. Even a little movement would trigger a bout.

“We were forced to keep her at the hospital for two months to contain the bleeding. There were even times we thought of moving in to terminate the pregnancy…, but then we would look at her and decide to hold back.”

“Lakshmi was a fighter. She wasn’t about to give up on the baby. So she fought on, and we fought on for her. We took it one day at a time…, till she was ready to deliver,” says Dr Mangala.

Audio: The medical sides of termination

There was, however, another problem. The fibroid, by then, had amassed to an extent that it was blocking the baby’s path out. So a call was taken to perform a c-section to remove the womb and extricate the baby.

Dr Mangal remembers how surprised she was at the end of it. “It was quite a jam inside there. The entire placenta — the baby sack — had adhered to the fibroid. It was a wonder the baby had survived…!”

Today, Lakshmi’s baby is a healthy 6 year old. When she see him at play, all the pain, the anxiety of the past, is forgotten. In its place she only feels unbridled joy, and no less, gratitude for the miracle that had happened.

(Shali Ittaman was formerly an editor at Times of India, at Hindustan Times and at Press Trust of India. Copy written for the Features Division, Guru Daksha Consultancy Services). 

Smile Baby IVF
Hennur Main Road, Below Fly over
Lingarajapuram,
Bangalore-560084,
Karnataka, India
Mob: 8884752134, 9686382856

Smile Baby IVF
Shishuka Childrens Speciality Hospital
(A Unit of Shishuka Health Care Pvt. Ltd) #938,
Ring Road Service Road,
Kalyan Nagar,
HRBR Layout Bangalore- 560043
Mob:  8884752134, +918088376374, +918660821311