A terrified mother watched cracks appear in the walls of a Kathmandu maternity unit and felt the ground shake beneath her feet as a massive earthquake struck Nepal while she was in labour this morning.

Plaster began falling from the walls and patients ran for their lives as Asha Shrestha, 29, prepared to give birth in an operating theatre in Prashuti Griha Hospital.

Her distressed relatives carried her from the room and sheltered in a tent after the powerful 7.3-magnitude earthquake hit, killing dozens of people and sending thousands more rushing out in to the streets of the capital Kathmandu.

An hour later, Ms Shrestha gave birth to her daughter in an emergency room and now lies side-by-side with other new mothers and their babies in a corridor.

Her home was destroyed less than three weeks ago when a devastating 7.8-magnitude quake killed more than 8,000 people, flattened entire villages and left hundreds of thousands homeless in the region.

Ms Shrestha’s relatives were waiting outside the operating theatre when the ground began to shake this morning.

‘Doctors were ready with a syringe, when the earthquake started,’ said relative Eta Laxmi, 29, who was waiting nearby. ‘I got very scared. We only had 10 minutes left till the surgery officially started and the walls started cracking around me.’

Chaos ensued – patients began running for their lives and the hospital was evacuated. Doctors waited with Ms Shrestha until the ground stopped shaking before her family burst into the room and carried her to the safety of a tent in an open space outside.

Ms Shrestha’s husband Bharat, 38, who was outside the hospital at this time, said: ‘I was at the main gate of the hospital. I was very worried about what had happened to them.’

She sat in tent in pain before being rushed to an emergency room by doctors, where she gave birth to a baby girl. Ms Shrestha, who only remembers being scared before waking up with her new daughter, said: ‘I am fine now.’

Shrestha’s husband Bharat (pictured), who was outside the hospital at this time, said: 'I was very worried about what had happened to them'

Mr Shrestha said: ‘We are so happy our child is safe, and are happy to be parents again but Asha cannot stop worrying.

‘She is fretting non-stop. She keeps saying “what will we do? How will we live”.’

The baby girl is their third child. Their other daughters are staying in a make-shift home in the ruins of their house in Swayambhu.

‘Our house was an old mud house,’ Mr Shrestha added. ‘It has collapsed completely, and we haven’t even had time to get our things out. We have no home to take her back to.’

The desperate father added: ‘What do I name someone who was born in this earthquake?’

Source: http://www.irise.com.ng/nepal-woman-gives-birth-amidst-7-3-magnitude-earthquake/

My lord! It is my humble submission that the said Nepales child birthed under the ravaging tentacles of mother nature, would definitely be an ''iron child,'' strong like Kalakunta Republic, and so, should be named ''quake!''

Thank you my lord. I rest my case!