Friday, June 3, 2011

Ilmenau and Indian pregnancy

OK, you might judge this to be a stupid, mere observation post but it is something to think about.
Ever since I moved here, I've met two Indian families. One a slightly old mid thirties couple from Uttar Pradesh and the other younger couple from the land of five rivers.
The second couple got pregnant back in 2009 or something and delivered last year. The nice lady narrated the grievances of her what was perhaps the worst 9 months. Of course, being the (new) mother that she is, she was only happy to see a beautiful and healthy baby girl at the end. In Germany, mid-wives deliver your baby and whatever happens, until the worst they make sure you have a natural birth. The lady here, had terrible complications and had to take anesthesia due to her other ailmenrts. This apparently has adverse affects on the baby. Having stayed in the hospital from the beginning of her last trimester, she successfully gave birth to her baby whose name is in accordance with the German pronunciation and spelling-thing. I found that quite funny. It's different my name has never been pronounced correctly. You see although I'm brown and bigger than an average Chinese girl, they like to call me "Pooya". You see the "J" is interchanged with "Y" here.
Coming back to the subject, after knowing all this, it's mating season again. ;) The other couple decided to go the family way and are on their way to giving birth to their child. This time, the lady fell down and broke her knee or something. OK, I know falling has nothing to do with the cosmic co-incidence that I'm trying to show here, but everything kinda adds up you know. And now she's in the hospital, in a 'city' 20 kms away from Ilmenau and her husband asked me to go visit her sometime. He also tells me they might have to cut open to bring the baby to this world. I can only imagine the complications given that such C-sections are very rare here.

I don't know why they couldn't go to their homes in India, where their mothers, mother-in-laws, neighbours(?) would pamper them, bring them pretty gifts and take care of them. I guess a European citizenship weighs more than a seemanta
Now, there is a third Indian couple that I know are here. I hope they read this post before they do anything silly. :P

Way to go my fellow Indians!

3 comments:

  1. well said Pooja.. I have seen few couples in US also and the important thing for them is to have US citizen ship for there kids.

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  2. Rohit - True. When you ask them if they're going to India for delivery, you should notice the expression on their faces, they'll look at you as though you asked the dumbest possible question on earth.
    What a pity.

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  3. I know one reason why they do this. The husbands spend half of their salary, every month, for the health insurance. And right from ambulance to the neonatologist's consultation everything is free of cost. Also, it is a nice chance to invite the mother or mother-in-law to Europe and take them around. "Biwi bhi khush aur maa bhi khush" types :P But one lady said to me, in person, that it takes a lot of patience and sacrifice to deliver a baby here. It's not easy. I sometimes think if this is all worth it! I mean, why stay away from home and away from your mother during the most important phase of your life?!
    -Archana

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