The Miracle of Life

I happened to see two features on the Television today. The first one was the Tiger Man. It’s the story of 2 tiger couples mating and the birth of 7 cubs. And as luck would have it, the next program I saw was I didn’t know I was pregnant. And so I ended up with the Tiger & the Human perspective on the miracle of life :)

The thoughts I will try to articulate have been in the making for the last couple of years. At my age I have many peers who are adept at changing nappies, and in some cases handling PTA meetings in addition to the changing the nappies ;) The excess of free time at my disposal in the recent past meant that I had the chance to check out some of the literature on the subject. The net result is a certain wonder at the miracle of life and a much deeper appreciation for my own parents and what they did for me.

Before I add more of my own perspectives, let me recount what I saw on TV today. The program Tiger Man was very visual in depicting the birth of the cubs. This was the first time the featured Tigress was pregnant and its quite possible that she had no clue what was going on. The first few minutes of the cub’s life as documented in the program seemed to confirm this view. However within first fifteen minutes of the first cub's birth it was time for the second cub and this time she was better prepared and by now her motherly instinct had taken roots.

Its still quite premature for me to define what that motherly instinct is but I will give it a try after I talk about the next program I watched today. The series I didn’t know I was pregnant, described the stories of women who didn’t know that they were pregnant till very late. The tagline for the series: “How can a woman not know she’s pregnant?”, very beautifully captures my first impression about the series ;)

The stories were quite heart wrenching. One of the ladies had lost her Grandmother to cancer and was doing two jobs. She was planning her wedding and was under tremendous stress when she finally decided to go to the hospital for a checkup. Such stories are apparently not that uncommon, and in fact one friend told me about tribal women who deliver very late due to lack of support and low education levels. A common thread in all these cases is the tremendous stress that these women are subjected to. Perhaps these stresses made them less aware of the bodily changes they underwent and perhaps even ignore the discomfort till it was quite late.

In the series I didn’t know I was pregnant there are many instances when the women didn’t realize their pregnancies till the very end. In one of the instances the when the baby was coming out, the nurse wasn’t sure whether it was a tumor or a baby. But despite all the troubles there is invariably a smile when the mothers start talking about their offsprings. Given the challenges of their own lives displaying such emotions is kinda beautiful.

I talked to a few parents about their experiences and I got some interesting answers. I guess its only when you become a parent do you allow someone to be completely dependent on you. Just imagine this, a new born is nothing but a lump of life. In the initial days the baby struggles to do even basic things like breathing or eating. The baby doesn’t have the ability to focus his/her sight, and the underdeveloped spine means that you have to give that extra support even when you hold him/her. You suddenly realize that its only you who would take care of this lump of life that emerged from you own body. That feeling of responsibility perhaps develops a bond that is deeper than any other human relation.