BENGALURU: Sita Bhateja may be one of a kind in the obstetrics-gynecology world. She has been an active practitioner for the last 67 years, and at the age of 88, she shows no signs of slowing down. “I love my job... I wouldn’t have survived 67 years if I didn’t enjoy it," Bhateja says laughing.
Her passion for her job is exhibited by the fact that she has worked free of cost at the CSI hospital for eight years, and has even funded the setting up of the maternity ward at St Martha’s Hospital.
She goes to the gym thrice a week, is very strict about her diet and is a voracious stamp collector. In fact, she is world famous for her philatelic activities. In her younger days, she was a horse-rider. However, none of these hobbies came in the way of her one passion -- gynaecology. In fact, she quips that she used to go on horseback to attend to expectant mothers if the need arose! She also had to witnessed the horrors of the partition, but went on to Bombay to pursue her higher studies.
She has engaged in several philanthropic activities-some of them including establishing an orphanage called the ‘Child Foundation Karnataka’, and engaging in polio eradication activities.
She set up the Sita Bhateja Hospital in 1965. It originally started out as an obstetric hospital, but became a multi-speciality
hospital in 1969. Owing to her long years of practice, it should come as no surprise when she reveals that she has helped deliver three generations of the same family.
Her delivery count exceeds an astounding one lakh babies. On being asked whether mothers opt for normal or C-section delivery these days, she says, “Most prefer C-section, as this prevents further complications like prolapse and urinary infections. They see no reason to persist with difficult vaginal deliveries. Further, women these days are not engaged in physical activity, so the body is not cut out for normal delivery.”