CHENNAI: As an increasing number of pregnant women turn to Tamil Nadu’s ‘108’ ambulance service for safe transportation to hospital, new data reveal the scale of emergency deliveries taking place en route.
Figures from EMRI Green Health Services, the GVK Enterprise subsidiary that operates the ‘108’ ambulance fleet on behalf of the state health department, show that 1,485 babies were safely delivered inside these ambulances during 2025-26. Of the approximately 3 lakh pregnancy-related emergencies handled by the service that year, nearly 1,500 resulted in births before the mother could reach hospital.
The previous year, 2024-25, recorded an even higher figure of 1,888 in-transit deliveries, putting the annual average over the last two years at over 1,000 such births.
Many of these deliveries happen in remote areas where the hospitals are a considerable distance away and also because in many cases, ambulances are called only after the labour pain progresses significantly, ambulance staff said.
“Annually, over 1,000 deliveries take place in transit in these ambulances. In 2025-26 alone, the service handled approximately 3 lakh pregnancy cases,” said Balaji Premnath, Marketing Head, EMRI Green Health Services, GVK Enterprise.
To put the numbers in context, TN recorded a total of 7.82 lakh deliveries in 2025-26, according to family welfare department data, meaning roughly one in every 500 births in the state took place inside a moving ‘108’ ambulance.
Each ‘108’ ambulance is staffed by trained Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) and equipped with a dedicated pregnancy delivery kit containing sterile gloves, antiseptic supplies, umbilical cord clamps, a bulb syringe or suction device, an infant feeding tube, sterile scissors, absorbent pads, and an infant wrap blanket, among other essentials. Senior medical officials said that the presence of trained personnel makes these deliveries safe.
“Most deliveries in transit happen in rural and remote areas, where the distance to the nearest hospital is quite long. Another contributing factor is that patients often contact the ambulance only after experiencing severe labour pain accompanied by leakage of amniotic fluid,” said S Selvamuthukumar, 108 Manager, Chennai Division.
For EMT S Bhavadharani, assisting in childbirth mid-journey is among the most demanding and rewarding challenges of the job. “There is an immense sense of satisfaction in ensuring the safety of both mother and child. We are rigorously trained in conducting deliveries, and refresher training is provided every six months,” she said.
Her most memorable case came in February, during her first in-transit delivery in two years of EMT service. The patient was a 19-year-old woman from northern India, living in Chennai temporarily with her husband. “I was on duty at Kodambakkam when the call came.
Shortly after the patient was shifted into the ambulance, amniotic fluid began leaking and I had to conduct the delivery immediately. We transferred both the mother and the newborn safely. The doctors commended me for managing the situation effectively, particularly given the language barrier,” she said.
