With fresh cases of swine flu being reported every day, there are increased precautions being taken at all levels. With persisting worry among the most susceptible section – pregnant women and babies – doctors are now concentrating on counselling after limiting their consultation.

Though the general precautions are recommended for pregnant women too, many doctors suggest extra safety measures and avoiding outdoors.

“When the city came to a halt we had advised women to avoid consultation for around 10 days. However, currently we are counselling them on the dos and don'ts, and giving general guidelines on hygiene. Avoiding enclosed places like theatres is very important. We have also prepared and distributed leaflets for more awareness," says Dr Sunita Tandulwadkar Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Ruby Hall Clinic

Niloufer Ebrahim, a psychologist and co-founder of prenatal programme Positively Pregnant, told reporters about reduced consulting hours and extra measures.

“We were functioning right throughout but babies are the biggest carriers and mothers are most susceptible. Therefore, along with maintaining hygiene we have also reduced the consulting hours from four to two right now. The panic is lesser though. We have also continued with our Positively Pregnant Classes which has around 22 couples with extra measures of ventilation and so on,” says Dr Ebrahim.

Babies being the most liable carriers doctors are advising caution on their exposure. “There is an average increase of 20 per cent in the number of patients. Of the total cases there is at least one positive case per week. There have also been instances when people have cancelled babies’ naming ceremonies and there is a concern again with the recent number of increase in deaths,” said Dr Prashant Udavant , Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Incharge Ruby Hall Clinic.

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