Photos: Sidecar ambulances help pregnant women in India

The motorbike roared as it strained to carry the ambulance sidecar up a steep river bank. The bike’s rear tire whirred in place, kicking up water and mud while the sidecar – a hospital bed on wheels under a white canvas canopy – rocked dangerously.

Two health workers, who had been following on foot, tried pushing the motorbike ambulance, but it didn’t budge. Eventually, the three gave up and settled for digging a new path.

After 40 minutes of digging and a push to lift the vehicle from the river bed onto the muddy path, the team was on its way again. The bike ambulance resumed its 14.5km (9-mile) trek across the forest known as Abhujmarh, or the “Unknown Hills”, to reach 23-year-old Phagni Poyam, nine months pregnant in the isolated village of Kodoli.

When the team arrived, Poyam was waiting next to her sleeping one-year-old boy, Dilesh. Like many babies in Kodoli, Dilesh wasn’t born in a hospital, both because of the distance and distrust of authorities. But in recent years, Poyam said, she has seen women or their babies die during childbirth and she doesn’t want to take any chances.

“My baby will be safer,” she said.

Motorbike ambulances are helping mothers give birth under medical supervision in Narayanpur district of central India’s Chhattisgarh state.

The heavily forested district is one of India’s most sparsely populated with about 139,820 inhabitants spread over 4,650sq km (1,800sq miles. Many villages, like Kodoli, are 16km (10 miles) or more from roads navigable by car. The state has one of the highest rates of pregnancy-related deaths for mothers in India, about 1.5 times the national average, with 137 pregnancy-related deaths for mothers per 100,000 births.

While authorities and health workers agree that motorbike ambulances don’t offer a long-term solution, they are making a difference.

Bike ambulances were first deployed in Narayanpur in 2014. Today, there are 13 bike ambulances operating in three districts of Chhattisgarh. They are run by local authorities and a nonprofit called Saathi with the support of UNICEF.

The ambulances focus on bringing mothers to and from the hospital but have also been called on to transport victims of snake bites and other emergencies.