A 32-year-old woman from a village in Tiruppur district died on Sunday of post-partum haemorrhage and related complications after she gave birth to a baby at her home, allegedly assisted by her husband watching YouTube videos on birthing, on June 24.

The police said that following complications, K. Sasikala, of Punjaithalavaipalayam in  Uthukuli taluk, was taken to a private hospital in Coimbatore, where she died on Sunday morning.

The woman went into labour in the early hours of June 24. Her husband Kolanthasamy, 35, and mother-in-law assisted in the delivery, allegedly watching videos of natural childbirth on YouTube. She gave birth to a female child, the police said.

The woman developed post-partum haemorrhage as the placenta was not expelled after the childbirth. She was taken to the Government Erode Medical College and Hospital at  Perundurai. Thereafter, she was admitted to a private hospital in Coimbatore on June 25 and died without responding to treatment on Sunday, the police said.

On a complaint filed by the Block Medical Officer, Kunnathur, the Uthukuli police registered a case against Kolanthasamy, under Section 105 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

“The deceased woman’s family members did not want to file any complaint. They said the couple had planned for a natural delivery at home,” Uthukuli Inspector S. Saravanan said.

Health Department sources said the infant was healthy and stable after the delivery. The couple has a six-year-old daughter, born in an institutional delivery in 2020. The department launched an inquiry and found that the woman was not registered under the Pregnancy and Infant Cohort Monitoring and Evaluation (PICME), its maternal and infant care tracking system.

The police and Health Department officials are conducting further investigation.