In the Mangalnar village in Bijapur district, Rajeshwari and Gopi conceived a child after ten years of waiting. In early April, during a strict lockdown to combat COVID-19, Rajeshwari went into premature labour at 24 weeks pregnant.
Thanks to the district’s referral network, she was promptly moved to the nearest community health centre and delivered her baby safely.
However, with a birth weight of a meagre 510 grams, the tiny baby’s fight for survival had just begun. After nearly three months of care in a sick newborn care unit at a district hospital and tele-mentoring from experts at the Apex health care institute of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Raipur, she became the youngest preterm baby to survive in the region.“Becaus