Folks, in just a few days my first born will be a year old.
It is a special feeling… A feeling of pride, belongingness, affection and
responsibility. Although I am not sure
if I can truly express what I felt when she was born and now when she will be a year
old. I had seen many mothers taking care of their babies but I myself had never
been around babies and taken concern in their nurturing. Three years back our
good friend’s Khushbu and Saurabh had their first born child Siddharth. That is
when I started playing with the then infant who is now a big boy of 3 years. Time just flew away when I was around him
playing and listening to his babbling. Manish being more playful then me, I
witnessed him playing with Siddharth as if he is not a ball of soft muscle but
a small little athlete who could be turned and played with like a soft ball.
For Manish and me having a baby was like a self-initiated
experiment. There were so many myths
related to pregnancy and child birth that we always looked forward to do things
our way ….more like a Research & Development way. I have always wanted to
share our bit of experiences, that made us look at pregnancy more in a fun way
rather than the scared way as most of the people would make it sound to be.
Our first adventure started with travelling by air when we
had just conceived Ananya. Although the gynecologist we first visited told us
it is a high risk gamble to travel in the first few weeks of conceiving. But
she did not give us a valid answer as to why she suggested so. Her explanation
was majority of the doctors would tell you so in this condition. But she did
not know that I had just traveled back from Bombay that too in local trains
carrying my own luggage and then too my fetus was intact. We had to travel to
Manish’s best friend’s wedding to Hyderabad, which I did not want to miss for
anything. We decided to pack our bags and fly with rest of our friends but we
took care by not picking up anything heavy, walking a little slow, eating
healthy and resting in between. And so we did it. Everything went well and we
landed back safely to our city. Somehow we could not confide in the gyne we
visited. It took us time to search for a Doctor who could provide us apt
reasons for either a Yes or No while our pregnancy. After small stint of search
we found our Gyne. Dr.Gunjan Govil. She was very relaxed and made us feel as everything is
normal, there was nothing to be afraid of. Pregnancy is just a health
condition, and not an ailment that needs to be treated. We were really relieved
to know that the Gyne whom we will visit for the next 9 months, she only would
be delivering our baby.
Dr. Gunjan called us every 2 weeks for routine checkups. Manish
was so relaxed after meeting her, that after a month or so I started visiting
her myself. Manish followed up later by phone to know about the checkup. She
monitored my weight, Blood Pressure and baby’s heartbeat. I being more on the
healthy side she only cautioned me against not gaining too much of weight.
Reasons being for an overweight person carrying a baby for the whole term that
is 42 weeks is difficult in addition to having a normal delivery. While she
maintained her advice to eat and not starve, but eat healthy and not treat
yourself in the traditional way. She asked us to read as much as we can about
pregnancy on the net. We learnt that for a pregnant lady it is recommended to
have normal diet with an addition of only 300 calories to allocate towards the
nutrition of the baby. In contrast we hear our mothers and other people going
GAGA about eating double the amount of your normal diet during pregnancy. So
there was one myth busted!
Another thing that people advice you is to eat something
white in the morning to have a fair baby. How can be possible? Just imagine, if
I would eat green peas early in the mornings…will my baby be green in
complexion???!!! What we read and learnt
from the net is that eating anything healthy is good as carrying mothers tend
to feel a little weak and nauseated in the mornings. Eating something rich like
a piece of sweet, milk & dry fruits or even fruits is a good
recommendation. Many times ladies do not
like eating and just throw up for the first half of the day. Every lady has a
different pattern during pregnancy. I was lucky enough as I did not feel
nauseated at all throughout my pregnancy. That was another reason as to why I
could travel and move around without any complication.
‘Exercise during pregnancy’!!!...Such a big debate to have.
I kept going to the gym until I was 8 months pregnant. My doctor recommended to
do light weight exercises and a few yogasanas additionally walk as much as you
can. One can get a good help from the internet about the exercises and yogasanas
one could do in different stages of your pregnancy. While walking one should
wear comfortable footwear & clothes. Talking while walking is a strict ‘No
No’. Taking the stairs is also a good choice of exercise. But one should be
comfortable doing so. If at all you feel restless or nauseated you should not
follow this. A regime of 20-30 minutes of activity every
day kept me fit and fine during the pregnancy. After the eighth month you would
only be able to walk and stretch but not exercise much.
Eclipses are another point of alarm during pregnancies.
Pregnant ladies should not cut, clean and moreover sit cross legged. During the
eclipse, one should not see sunlight nor should your womb. Some people even
apply some sort wet soil to prevent the sun rays from ‘penetrating’ into the
tummy of the would be mummy. J
If you don’t follow these rules, your baby could be blind, one footed, crippled
or any other sort of abnormality would occur…this is what they believe. When I
was in my 5th month Manish got Chicken Pox. Ouch!!!!!!......Such a big concern.
And the same week the eclipse occurred. I cut vegetables, made lunch &
dinner, did the cleaning, went grocery shopping and even looked at the eclipse
at night. The moon looked beautiful...Nonetheless after that…I was healthy and my baby
was also healthy when delivered. In
olden times there were no detailed checkups, not every to be mother got the
best nutrition & medicines, hence the chances of having an abnormal baby
was high, that was interrelated to eclipses and other natural phenomenon’s.
We were having an addition to our family. Hence we bought a
car even before our baby arrived. I was 5 months pregnant. Manish was new
behind the wheels. Hence the initial months of our new car I drove around until
Manish got his drivers license. I drove my car until the 9th month
of pregnancy…and enjoyed driving around as it gave a feeling of doing something
new and exciting. I always wore my seat belt and never over speed-ed anytime.
Reading good, watching good shows on TV….all this do make a
difference during the pregnancy. In fact reading what soothes your mind and
watching what you enjoy is what I followed.
My friends gave me picture perfect photos of cute babies to hang around
my house so that I could look at them and my baby would be just like
them!...Sorry friends…but I did not look at those pics…Why would I want my baby
to look like someone else. Besides, a
babies features and it’s gene structure is built in the first 2 months of
conceiving. No matter what you see your
baby has already started to look like itself!
My trial of pregnancy came to an end in the full term of
pregnancy and resulting in a normal vaginal delivery. I was discharged the
second day of the delivery itself and asked to move around and gain activity on
my own pace. But not be lethargic. I thought that everything till now was good
, but there was one last ordeal to overcome. Breast Feeding. Ananya was a
normal baby to be delivered but somehow, I and she as a team could not
successfully attempt breast feeding. I was depressed that as a mother I could
not feed my own baby. I visited Dr Gunjan and discussed my concern with her.
She was quite supporting and asked me to be on some medicines and follow the
natural way of feeding. But sometimes nature can be averse too. Dr Gunjan explained that this is a natural
process, majorly it happens naturally and in abundance, but if not…there is no
cure or remedy for it. I questioned her that I did not follow a traditional
diet routine is the reason behind this. She replied PooJa…let me tell you a
small thing….even a beggar on the street with minimal of nutrition is able to
breast feed its baby. Again because naturally she can do it. Diet is not a
major concern here. Also when people say to pregnant ladies….Drink ample of
milk as you will feed your baby. Milk itself does not produce milk! Does a cow
who produces milk drinks milk in return….NO!...She basically eats grass and
loads of fiber. However, I was in pain and gloom but I had a baby to feed no
matter what!...I started using Nestle’s Lactogen. And within 2 months started
Amul’s full cream milk. With the grace of God and our efforts…she eats well and
is growing as a normal baby should.
Now…when I share my
thoughts with you I don’t mean to lionize myself and say what a Big Thing! What
I mean is thinking differently never hurts. It only takes a little courage and
a partner who could make you feel even if things go wrong it is ok. At least it
will be your own mistake. I could not do this variety experiments during my
pregnancy if it was not for Manish. His belief ‘Never follow the crowd’ still is applied in our day
to day lives and eventually that is ‘our’ belief now. With each day passing, my
faith grows stronger when I say delivering a baby is not difficult task …but bringing up
a child in a right way is a hell of a task. Our endeavor has been just a year
old now…looking forward to write again when our myth buster ‘Ananya’ is grown
up for us to know more facts about childhood and parenting.
