Last week we were travelling to Pavna Lake, a stunning weekend getaway just an hour and a half from the buzzing Mumbai. There we met a couple. A lovely, young Indian couple. The woman was 5 months pregnant and the couple was elated. This is their story.
We invited them to our room for drinks. At night; all of us were in somewhat high spirits (except the to – be mother of course), when her husband began to discuss the ordeal they had to face to achieve parenthood. He explained to us how they were not able to conceive despite all attempts since a year. He spoke of the exhausting rounds at the gynecologists and obstetricians that left the couple with lesser and lesser hope each time they met somebody.
Harder they worked, further they got from actually having the baby. Every time they visited the doctor, the doctor said; “What are you doing so wrong? Are you drinking? Are you taking some pills?”. Another, rather crude doctor told them, “You are getting older by the minute. And by the minute, you both are losing your fertility!” Their sex life ironically suffered the most. The one thing, they never had any problem with, now suffered immensely. The harder they worked towards it, the more stress built up, romance got thrown out of the window and having a baby became a dying hope.
6 months ago, they gave up. One morning, the woman woke up and threw away all her medications. She went to work after a week’s sick leave and wrote a note to her husband. It read, “I can live without a baby but not without my life.” And that was it. They gave up all their doctors and medications and went back to their wine, beer and non – vegetarian diets. They even got a dog to fill up the void of the future. Soon love flourished, and intimacy took it’s own course to make a child grow naturally within the woman. No medications, a really bad lifestyle but a month later; she actually got pregnant!
So what ever happened to the ageing womb and the weltering sperm count? They went to see the crude doctor again who now said, “See. It pays off. All the medications, all the persistence.” The husband started laughing hysterically now as he said, “But Doc ! We were both drunk when we made our child !” The husband swore that the doctor turned red when he heard this and asked them to leave and they happily obliged!
So they dropped the hopes, they even chose not to follow the hard routine. The eased into their life. They made their life fun. They did the one thing their unborn child wanted them to do – To be themselves, stress- free, carefree, just like him / her. And then the soul entered his mother’s happy body, to float in her happy waters, and to kick and move in her new found stress free comfort.
My happy ending to this story was when the woman told me, “It is so funny. We tried and tried and tried and we couldn’t make it. And now, this fellow right here, is an unplanned child ! ” she said while she nursed her swell.
Spirited Poetess 