In the course of my work, it's amazing the number of teenage moms I come across. They are a true testimony that mother nature is always hard at work to ensure no single opportunity is lost in propagating the human species.
The reactions to the new mommyhood status are as varied as can be, but what is never lost on me is the sense of wonder on the young mom's face as she takes in the realization that she has given rise to a whole new human being, delicate yet amazingly breath-taking. It's a look one can't fake.
On the flip side, one never thinks of the sense of incompleteness a woman has when she craves to be a mom to no avail; that is, unless it is happening to you. It is the loneliest period of a woman's life. As she fights her inner wars, she still has to put up with the prejudices of an unforgiving society, as it is widely viewed in most parts of the world that infertility is the woman's fault.
In my early years as a doctor, I arrived at the hospital for the night shift in a busy maternity hospital. The ward was full and extremely busy. The nurse and I started the rounds with the understanding that we had a long night ahead. We arrived at the third cube and as I said hello to the patient, I was taken aback by the fact that her age was outside the expected age bracket for a patient in labor. I checked her file again and verbally confirmed her age. She was fifty one years old! She was not only in labor, but this was het first pregnancy!!
Our patient was painfully shy and withdrawn and was almost apologetic for being in our ward. I spent time putting her at ease as I elicited crucial information about her reproductive history. She had spent thirty years of her life trying to have a baby. She had survived three failed marriages, ridicule, shame and abandonment by her family. She had been subjected to a multitude of treatments to help her conceive to no avail. She was so deeply scarred emotionally, it was evident in her physical being.
She had resigned herself to her fate. She had given up on prayer, science and even humanity. And at an age when her peers were past menopause, SHE GOT PREGNANT! Suffice it to say, she was clueless as to what was going on in her body. Pregnancy symptoms were interpreted as menopause and it wasn't until her seventh month of pregnancy that she dared to think that the impossible could have happened.
She was so shocked when the midwife at her local clinic confirmed her pregnancy that she never went back to the clinic till she presented to us in early labor. Suffice it to say, this was a truly precious baby and being a facility with minimum fetal monitoring resources, we planned her delivery by caesarian section to improve her chances of a good outcome.
The little one had other ideas. He surely had a point to prove, that patients did not always pay any attention to text books. What was anticipated to be a protracted tedious labor ended up being precipitate. In the hour it took us to get her ready for surgery, she went ahead to have a normal uncomplicated delivery. At midnight, she gave birth to a beautiful 2800 gram baby boy, all ten fingers and ten toes intact!
THESE ARE THE MOMENTS THAT GOD TAKES OUR BREATHE AWAY AND REMINDS US THAT WE ARE MERE MORTALS!!!
The reactions to the new mommyhood status are as varied as can be, but what is never lost on me is the sense of wonder on the young mom's face as she takes in the realization that she has given rise to a whole new human being, delicate yet amazingly breath-taking. It's a look one can't fake.
On the flip side, one never thinks of the sense of incompleteness a woman has when she craves to be a mom to no avail; that is, unless it is happening to you. It is the loneliest period of a woman's life. As she fights her inner wars, she still has to put up with the prejudices of an unforgiving society, as it is widely viewed in most parts of the world that infertility is the woman's fault.
In my early years as a doctor, I arrived at the hospital for the night shift in a busy maternity hospital. The ward was full and extremely busy. The nurse and I started the rounds with the understanding that we had a long night ahead. We arrived at the third cube and as I said hello to the patient, I was taken aback by the fact that her age was outside the expected age bracket for a patient in labor. I checked her file again and verbally confirmed her age. She was fifty one years old! She was not only in labor, but this was het first pregnancy!!
Our patient was painfully shy and withdrawn and was almost apologetic for being in our ward. I spent time putting her at ease as I elicited crucial information about her reproductive history. She had spent thirty years of her life trying to have a baby. She had survived three failed marriages, ridicule, shame and abandonment by her family. She had been subjected to a multitude of treatments to help her conceive to no avail. She was so deeply scarred emotionally, it was evident in her physical being.
She had resigned herself to her fate. She had given up on prayer, science and even humanity. And at an age when her peers were past menopause, SHE GOT PREGNANT! Suffice it to say, she was clueless as to what was going on in her body. Pregnancy symptoms were interpreted as menopause and it wasn't until her seventh month of pregnancy that she dared to think that the impossible could have happened.
She was so shocked when the midwife at her local clinic confirmed her pregnancy that she never went back to the clinic till she presented to us in early labor. Suffice it to say, this was a truly precious baby and being a facility with minimum fetal monitoring resources, we planned her delivery by caesarian section to improve her chances of a good outcome.
The little one had other ideas. He surely had a point to prove, that patients did not always pay any attention to text books. What was anticipated to be a protracted tedious labor ended up being precipitate. In the hour it took us to get her ready for surgery, she went ahead to have a normal uncomplicated delivery. At midnight, she gave birth to a beautiful 2800 gram baby boy, all ten fingers and ten toes intact!
THESE ARE THE MOMENTS THAT GOD TAKES OUR BREATHE AWAY AND REMINDS US THAT WE ARE MERE MORTALS!!!
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