No Vaccines, Supplies Or Hospital Beds: Pregnant With COVID In India
When the call came from the doctor that afternoon, it was ominous.
"They said that [my wife, Minal] had suffered a cardiac arrest in the intensive care unit, but the baby's heartbeat was fine," says Chetan Waghmere, who works for a corporate company. "An emergency cesarean section had to be done in the ICU itself; there was no time to move her. The baby survived, but Minal did not."
Minal Waghmere was COVID positive, 32 weeks pregnant and 32 years old when she died on April 8 in the Kingsway Hospital in Nagpur, a city in central India.
"This is a bad disease," says Chetan with anger in his voice. "Please if you are pregnant, please be careful."
As I write this from Delhi, I have reached the 32-week mark of my pregnancy. I have spent many moments of the last eight months anxiously wondering how to best care for myself and my unborn child living in a country in
