Medical Student Helps Woman Give Birth On Moving Train

The bogie of a moving train turned into a delivery room for a 28-year-old Indian woman, who gave birth to her baby with the help of a medical student.

The final-year student was hailed a hero for the safe birth of the baby girl, the first delivery she performed on her own.

The incident took place while the Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam Duronto Express train was making its way through the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, NDTV reported Wednesday.

The pregnant woman was traveling with her husband to their hometown as her due date was near. But before they could arrive at their destination, the woman started feeling labor pains at around 3:30 a.m. early Tuesday.

Traveling in the same coach at the time was 23-year-old K. Swathi Reddy, a medical student who is in her final year of becoming a qualified doctor.

When somebody asked for a doctor, Swathi sprung into action and was by the side of the woman in labor. Up until then, her only experience with delivering babies was assisting professors in delivery rooms.

"I was worried a lot and also fear gripped because this is the first delivery that I performed on my own," the medical student told the Times of India. "Earlier, I assisted professors in the hospital."

"Initially, I was worried and also afraid because the placenta had not come out for 45 minutes," Swathi added.

All of Swathi's concerns were dismissed when the baby girl safely came out at around 5:35 a.m. on the moving train. "I was relieved when the baby came out," she said.

Fellow passengers offered a helping hand and even offered their blankets to keep the infant warm as they were all seated in an AC coach.

"Newborns should be kept in warm conditions. But it was an AC bogie," Swathi told the outlet. "Passengers gave their blankets wrapped to the child. Many passengers helped a lot in performing delivery by converting the compartment into a makeshift delivery room," she added.

An ambulance was waiting for the mother and newborn at the Anakapalli railway station. Swathi accompanied the pair to the hospital, where doctors placed the premature infant in an incubator.

Both the mother and baby are doing well.