Arab News learned that the nurse, Somy Joseph, developed labor pains as soon as she cleared the immigration counter at the airport. The airport health officials had attended to the pregnant mother to deliver her baby safely and she was taken to the airport hospital subsequently.
Shihab Kuttugad, social worker from the Saudi Chapter of the Non-Resident Keralites Affairs (NORKA), who is looking after the interests of the mother and baby, told Arab News on Friday that the nurse, who hails from the southern Indian state of Kerala, was going home for delivery.
“It was a premature birth. Mother and baby were taken to the Riyadh Central Hospital in Shemesi from the airport hospital,” Kuttugad said, adding that now the mother has been discharged from the hospital, while her daughter is in an incubator since it is a premature birth.
According to Kuttugad, the mother has named her baby Jimmy.
At the time of birth, the baby weighed 1,800 grams. According to doctors, infants weighing 1,500 to 2,000 grams should remain in the incubator for three to five weeks.
Somy, 27, is a nurse attached to the government general hospital in Sharourah, located in the southern tip of the Kingdom near the Yemen border. She got married to Rajiv, during her last vacation in India. Rajiv, who works in the United Arab Emirates, left for his workplace, while Somy came to the Kingdom after their honeymoon.
The mother, who is discharged from the hospital, is now staying with her friend in Riyadh. “She visits the hospital daily to feed her infant,” Kuttugad said, adding that the doctors have said the baby will be discharged soon, and mother and child can travel as soon as the baby’s health condition becomes conducive.
The social worker said the mother is in good health and she will go to the Indian Embassy in Riyadh during this week to register the birth of her daughter at the mission to facilitate the baby to be included in the mother's passport.
