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.
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