Lockdown, Sanitizer and LavKush: Cama Hospital’s newborns

Three babies born to Covid-infected mothers at Cama Hospital were given very unique names —Lockdown, Sanitizer, and LavKush.

Three babies born to Covid-infected mothers at Cama Hospital were given very unique names —Lockdown, Sanitizer, and LavKush.

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The postnatal Covid ward at the government-run hospital erupted with laughter on Tuesday, when medical staffers got to know about the names. One of the boys has been named Lockdown while a girl was given the name Sanitizer. Another boy child has been named after the mythological characters Lav and Kush – sons of Lord Ram and Sita. The child’s parents have used the national lockdown as a metaphor for the divine couple’s exile from Ayodhya and the birth of their children.

“I was strolling around the hospital on my duty when I heard laughter in the corridor. When I asked, the three couples informed us about their decision to name their babies based on the Covid pandemic,” said Dr Aparna Hegde, head of the division of urogynecology at Cama Hospital.

These are not the first parents to take inspiration from the Covid-19 outbreak. In the first week of April, a couple in Chhattisgarh named their newborn twins Corona and Covid. In the last week of April, a couple from Uttar Pradesh named their child Lockdown.

Since the outbreak of the virus in Mumbai, over 400 babies have born to infected mothers. BYL Nair and Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital (Sion hospital) recorded delivery of over 100 healthy uninfected babies from Covid positive mothers.

“It’s a tough situation for couples who are expecting. The trend of naming their newborns after the pandemic was also seen in China. It’s actually like a souvenir for the parents to remind them how they fought with the deadly virus and won against it for their children,” said Dr Sagar Mundada, a city psychiatrist.