Maharashtra: Woman Gives Birth To 17th Child in 20th Pregnancy; Baby Dies

A migrant labourer woman from Maharashtra recently gave birth to her 17th baby in neighbouring Karnataka, but the infant did not survive, a health official said on Tuesday.

Lankabai (full name not disclosed), resident of Majalgaon tehsil of Maharashtra's Beed district, gave birth to a baby girl in a sugarcane field in Belgaum district of Karnataka, he said.

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Thousands of men and women from the drought-prone Beed region migrate to other parts of Maharashtra and also to Karnataka to work in sugarcane fields during the harvest season.

"We have learnt that Lankabai gave birth to her 17th child, a girl, who died soon afterwards. We are trying to find out more details," Beed health officer Dr RB Pawar said.

The woman, who belongs to the nomadic Gopal community, first drew the attention of health officials in September when they found that she was pregnant for the 20th time.

She has 11 children, nine of them girls. She had three abortions while five children had died, the official said.

She had undergone a primary checkup for the first time on September 8, and officials had kept a tab on her condition, Dr Pawar said.

"Our team visited her house on November 21, but found that she had left for Karnataka," he said.

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