Woman takes off her top to deliver Thaipusam baby

 

Marie Puspan (right) and her daughter Naroshini Annaselam who helped the Malay woman who went into labour in the car.

PETALING JAYA: Thaipusam, the festival of penance, became an occasion of joy for Naroshinii Annaselam and her mother, Marie Puspan, as they helped a woman deliver her baby in a pickup truck near Batu Caves.

The woman’s husband was distraught behind the steering wheel, while the mother was semi-conscious, exhausted in mid-delivery with the baby halfway out.

Naroshinii and Marie reacted instinctively, with Naroshinii taking off her kurti top without thought for her modesty to help deliver the baby.

Marie was taken aback by her daughter’s actions but refocused her attention on helping the woman, Lidawati Zakaria, to deliver her baby. “I used the top to pull out the baby and when I did, it began to cry,” she said.

Naroshinii, asked how she felt about removing her top in front of everyone, simply said that the priority was the baby and not her modesty. “It was almost second nature to do whatever I could to help,” she said.

Naroshinii talks about a photo taken on the day the Thaipusam baby was born.

The two women related to FMT what happened last Tuesday as they were making their way on foot to the Sri Subramaniar Temple in Batu Caves, Kuala Lumpur.

Naroshinii felt something amiss on seeing a pickup truck stopping in the middle of the junction.

“I was wondering why the car had stopped so abruptly and as we passed it, I made eye contact with the driver who was wailing in distress,” she said.

Naroshinii broke away from the Thaipusam procession and approached the truck cautiously. “I walked up to him (the driver) and asked if everything was all right, and he said: Tolong! My wife is about to deliver,” she said.

Naroshinii told the man (Mohammad Ismaidi Ismail) that she would call an ambulance, but he told her that the baby was on its way out.

Naroshinii Annaselam and Marie Puspan recounting the events that took place on Thaipusam day.

She then peeked into the vehicle and saw Lidawati semi-conscious in the passenger seat with half a baby’s body already out.

“I was overwhelmed but once I gathered my thoughts, I turned to my mother for assistance because I felt the situation needed a woman, more specifically a mother.”

Marie said she saw the exhaustion in Lidawati’s face: it was plain she could no longer push the baby out. “My hands were bare, and I told my daughter to get me a cloth to pull the baby out. After searching, my daughter decided to remove her kurti top,” she said.

Marie then hurriedly wrapped the newborn with her daughter’s top and scarves offered by standers-by to keep the baby warm.

“I don’t have prior experience delivering a baby but as a mother of five, I know how difficult and painful the process is. I reacted completely out of instinct and delivered a baby girl.

“I was very happy that both the mother and baby were healthy and safe,” she said.

Both Naroshinii and Marie were grateful to have been part of such an incredible and humbling experience. “We hope to visit the baby and parents someday,” said Naroshinii. - FMT