Pranjalee Thanekar Lahiri was ready to make the ‘big announcement’ when her mother was diagnosed with an auto-immune disorder. But just as she was in the third trimester of her pregnancy, her mother succumbed to her illness.
On one hand, she was giving birth to a new life while on the other, she had lost one. Her whole world had come crashing down. She began to wonder if she was happy anymore about the life she’d give birth to?
The turmoil didn’t end there. After she delivered her child, she suffered severe post partum depression. She hated herself, her body, the baby and everything around her. She confined herself to the house because she had no confidence in herself. Her life had turned on its head.
However, over the next few months she began to realise that she had truly been blessed to have her son Priyansh.
For Aarti Kapur Singh, too, there was a series of struggles before she finally embraced motherhood.
Aarti remembers how the medicines took a toll on her health, “which is definitely not the best way to be when you are expecting your first child.”
As traumatic as this phase was turning out to be for her, she knew she could not lose hope. She underwent surgery. Soon after, during her delivery she underwent a C section. However, when the baby was only 8 months old, the spinal cord abscess re-occurred. This meant that she would have to go under the knife again.
But today when she looks back, she is glad she fought with an iron fist. “Motherhood makes you strong and I passed with flying colours”, she confides.
Sayali Umbarkar Bari, who lives in Seattle and works for a multinational company, had her own set of struggles before she became a mother. She was presented with an exciting opportunity at work, pretty much her dream project that she'd wanted to be a part of for the longest time. But acknowledging that she was soon going to be on a maternity break, she had to pass on the opportunity.
During this phase, she developed food sensitivities, amongst other complications. She hated most vegetables that the doctor asked her to eat. She couldn’t stand the smell of frying oil. She was throwing up almost all the time.
Even after her delivery and the short maternity break, when Sayali finally went back to work, her struggles weren’t over. A saga of sleepless nights, taking care of her baby and long hours at work meant complete burnout. It was taking a toll on her body and health and she was at a breaking point. She wanted to quit her job – the very one that she'd worked hard to attain. She wanted to let it all go.
But she didn’t. Mustering her guts, Sayali rallied and worked and managed to get a promotion as well.
(A freelance food and fashion blogger, Pranjali Bhonde Pethe aims at getting people and their favourite food and style closer through her blog moipalate. Email her at pranjali.bhonde@gmail.com and follow her on @moipalate.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)