Laila Begum
Kozhikode: Once
while patrolling the streets during the wee hours, the Chemmad police
saw a man ‘chasing’ a woman on the highway. After a stiff tussle, the
team succeeded in holding back the man.
But to the embarrassment of the ‘heroes’, the woman started running back scolding the police. And she turned out to be Dr Laila Begum, a gynaecologist, who was rushing to the hospital followed by her aide to attend an emergency as her personal driver had failed to turn up.
Dr Laila Begum, who works at Laila’s Hospital, Chemmad in Malappuram district, holds the rare record of attending to 40,000 recorded deliveries of which about 428 are twins and four are triplets.
Various health organizations are all set to constitute a committee to recognize the gynaecologist, known as the ‘Gynaec of the poor’. Moves are also afoot to place her in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Seated in her room in an old unattractive hospital building, Dr Laila Begum told Deccan Chronicle that she was not bothered about money. Born in a small village, Edachembu near Kottayam, Dr Laila was drawn into the profession on seeing the long winding queues of the poor in front of the lone doctor’s house in her village.
“I always wanted to be a doctor”, she said, adding that she still keeps the fascination aflame.
“Each case is a new to me”, she said, adding that attending to about 250 deliveries a month and five to ten deliveries a day has not been an easy task. “The tension is high as the life of the mother and child is always at risk”, she said. Most often she has her dinner at around midnight and lunch in the evening. “How can we eat when our patients wait for us on empty stomachs most of the time?” she asks.
“Scared about the risks involved, the young generation is not willing to opt for gynaecology”, she said. “To avoid risks most doctors now go in for defensive treatment like prescribing all sorts of all costly tests including several rounds of scanning which makes delivery a costly affair”, says the doctor who always preferred normal delivery to a caesarian.
A true believer, Dr Laila Begum believes that her role is God-given, just to help the baby come out the natural way. “Only in critical situations do I go in for a caesarian”, she said. “I don’t support the concept of man intervening in the divine process by changing the delivery time through caesarian sections”, she added.
The doctor has a pillar of support in her husband A. Nazrullah. She has three children; Dr Sumayya, a gynecologist, Nadhir, an engineer and Ayisha, MBBS student.Dr Begum completed her MBBS from Kottayam Medical College and was in government service till 1994.
The Tirurangadi panchayat is known for its high rate of childbirth and the highest density of twin-births in the state. Dr Begum is now the president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Tirurangadi unit.
But to the embarrassment of the ‘heroes’, the woman started running back scolding the police. And she turned out to be Dr Laila Begum, a gynaecologist, who was rushing to the hospital followed by her aide to attend an emergency as her personal driver had failed to turn up.
Dr Laila Begum, who works at Laila’s Hospital, Chemmad in Malappuram district, holds the rare record of attending to 40,000 recorded deliveries of which about 428 are twins and four are triplets.
Various health organizations are all set to constitute a committee to recognize the gynaecologist, known as the ‘Gynaec of the poor’. Moves are also afoot to place her in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Seated in her room in an old unattractive hospital building, Dr Laila Begum told Deccan Chronicle that she was not bothered about money. Born in a small village, Edachembu near Kottayam, Dr Laila was drawn into the profession on seeing the long winding queues of the poor in front of the lone doctor’s house in her village.
“I always wanted to be a doctor”, she said, adding that she still keeps the fascination aflame.
“Each case is a new to me”, she said, adding that attending to about 250 deliveries a month and five to ten deliveries a day has not been an easy task. “The tension is high as the life of the mother and child is always at risk”, she said. Most often she has her dinner at around midnight and lunch in the evening. “How can we eat when our patients wait for us on empty stomachs most of the time?” she asks.
“Scared about the risks involved, the young generation is not willing to opt for gynaecology”, she said. “To avoid risks most doctors now go in for defensive treatment like prescribing all sorts of all costly tests including several rounds of scanning which makes delivery a costly affair”, says the doctor who always preferred normal delivery to a caesarian.
A true believer, Dr Laila Begum believes that her role is God-given, just to help the baby come out the natural way. “Only in critical situations do I go in for a caesarian”, she said. “I don’t support the concept of man intervening in the divine process by changing the delivery time through caesarian sections”, she added.
The doctor has a pillar of support in her husband A. Nazrullah. She has three children; Dr Sumayya, a gynecologist, Nadhir, an engineer and Ayisha, MBBS student.Dr Begum completed her MBBS from Kottayam Medical College and was in government service till 1994.
The Tirurangadi panchayat is known for its high rate of childbirth and the highest density of twin-births in the state. Dr Begum is now the president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Tirurangadi unit.
