COFFIN BIRTH: A RARE CASE REPORT

A 25 years old female, resident of a village hanged herself in suspecting conditions. The postmortem was conducted by a board of doctor. The dead body was referred to PGIMS Rohtak from Civil Hospital. The reason for referral was the decomposed state of body with pregnancy of 8 months. At the time of autopsy, there was a big bulge in the lower cloth of deceased and the body was in a state of advanced putrefaction with greenish discoloration of almost the complete body surface showing pronounced marbling and, in addition, now a dead fetus was extruding from the birth canal with intact umbilical cord. Autopsy showed no signs of external violence prior to death and, in particular, no indication of preceding manipulations in the region of the obstetrical canal and the uterus could be detected. The uterine cavity showed pronounced putrefactive alterations with the amniotic membranes being partially raised and bloated in a balloon-like fashion. The foetus showed no signs of live birth. The typical finding of not only the head but also the whole fetus extruding from the birth canal at the time of autopsy is consistent with post- mortem fetal extrusion caused by putrefactive gas pressure against the pregnant uterus.