PESHAWAR, Aug 6: Some gynaecologists working in city hospitals are alleged to be involved in helping women to deliver babies conceived out of wedlock.

This was stated by some doctors of the hospitals. They said that the country's laws strictly prohibited carrying out deliveries out of wedlock, but the gynaecologists were helping such deliveries to earn money.

They said that the gynaecologists received money from the women as well from people to whom the newly-born babies were sold . "An unmarried pregnant woman is admitted to one of the hospitals.

She is expected to deliver a male baby in a couple of days," a trainee medical officer (TMO) in the same ward, said. According to her, the treatment chart of the woman showed that she had got an abdominal cyst for which she would be operated upon.

She said that a consultant had admitted the woman, because she reportedly needed a baby boy for some pecuniary gains whereas the woman would be content with the doctor's remarks that she had undergone an operation for abdominal cyst.

"In this way, the woman would be saved from social stigma and the doctor will get a baby boy, because her ultrasound examination has confirmed that the woman is bearing a male baby," she added.

The gynaecologist, she alleged, had been involved in such practices for a long time. Not long ago, several cases of baby thefts from the labour room of one of the city hospitals were reported.

On investigation, one assistant in the hospital was found to have been stealing babies. There were several stances, wherein male children were exchanged with females either in the labour room or nursery ward.

To curb this practice, a senior gynaecologist used to maintain a proper register, in which entries of all patients along with the names of their husbands and addresses were maintained.

The same gynaecologist also used to check the investigation and ultrasound of patients. But the doctors involved in the practice resorted to getting desired results of the ultrasound from certain doctors.

"The ultrasound reports mentioned cysts in the abdomen. Such women were then operated in the evening shifts and sent back before the arrival of the officer in charge," said a staff nurse in the labour room of one hospital.

A week ago, a pregnant unmarried women underwent an operation in a teaching hospital in the evening shift. The male baby she gave birth to was flown to Karachi by a rich man and her treatment chart showed that she had been operated upon to retrieve fluids from her abdomen.

"The woman was given VIP treatment. Medicines were arranged from the hospital and was given a fluid-filled bottle so that she could show it to her relatives," a staff nurse said.