Baby girl born in the midst of earthquake drama

Like all proud fathers Bharat Shrestha is gently comforting his baby daughter, while his wife recovers from the birth.

But this was no ordinary labour – his wife Asha was just about to go into the delivery theatre of the maternity hospital when yesterday’s earthquake struck.

As staff fled in panic Asha was left to watch alarming cracks spread across the walls as the entire hospital shook violently for some 30 seconds.

Despite the drama, Asha gave birth to a healthy little girl. But this tiny perfect infant was born into dire circumstances. Her family has lost everything. Their house was destroyed in the first quake on the 25th April and now she and her mother are recovering on a bed out in the hospital car park, amid fears aftershocks could destabilise the building further.

ITV News Correspondent Dan Rivers reports:

Father Bharat is clearly brimming with emotion when I ask him what it’s like to hold his little girl. I don’t need to hear the translation to know what he said. As a father of two little girls myself, I remember those tender first days, gazing into the new eyes of a perfect face, wondering what they will witness in the years ahead. Bharat’s eyes conveyed that in an instant.

But for Bharat his daughter has already had an incredibly challenging start. His baby girl has no home to go, not even a maternity ward in which to be monitored.

Born into a country crippled by fear and shattered by two earthquakes this girl’s life is one immersed in adversity before it’s even begun. The only thing her parents can give her right now is a name – and even that simple pleasure has been postponed amid the chaos of the last twenty four hours.

And this family is not alone – there are a dozen others in this car park, hundreds probably across Nepal. The joy of a new birth eclipsed by the wretched destruction of an earthquake that brought death with such random cruelty.