KOCHI: For the couple Sonia and Shijo, it is as good as it gets. While disembarking from INS Jalashwa in Kochi after the harrowing days of COVID-19 in the Maldives, the couple would have never thought their much-awaited baby would arrive on a Mother’s Day. Sonia gave birth to a boy at a private hospital in Kochi. The Tiruvalla native, who works as a nurse in the Maldives, underwent a C-section.
“I’m truly happy now. It is quite relieving to reach Kerala and deliver my baby in our native land,” said Sonia. It is through operation Sethu Samudra that 698 stranded Indian citizens from the island country were rescued. Among the passengers, 19 were pregnant women. “As soon as Sonia felt the pain, we rushed her to the hospital,” said a health official.