First Few Months

Adit was just 2.25 kg. at birth. He was put in an incubator for a couple of days. The practice then was no rooming-in after an operation so as to give the mother adequate rest. Also due to the many medications, antibiotics and other stuff that they had pumped into me, I was not supposed to breast-feed the baby for a few days. So to prevent the milk production and the possibility of an abscess as I had had the first delivery, and assuming that I would not want to feed him as I was working, they injected something to curtail the flow before I knew what was happening. Whether that alone was the reason or Adit was not strong enough to suckle well, we had to give up the idea of exclusive breastfeeding within a few weeks to ensure his survival. There was an altercation later between the gynaecologist, Dharma and her husband Tarun, the paediatrician, on these actions!
For a couple of anxious months, Aditya was still below normal weight and looked weak and undernourished. But suddenly he beame ok and was moving around as per the norm, and later beyond it. Indian tradition enjoins a minimum 42 days as a seclusion and recuperation period for both the mother and child after childbirth. Even modern health systems advise extra care during the first 6 weeks, both to safeguard the duo from unhygenic environments and to allow the uterus to get back to normal. It is also supposed to make for maximum breastfeeding results. I think I took about two months off and then had to get back to work. By chance, a wonderful ayyah called Venkatamma, came to look after Adit, and they took to each other. She stayed at the servants' quarters of a nearby flat that her son had had allotted to him. Venkatamma was a golden find as an ayah. She seemed to have an instinctive mothering nature and she and Adit took to each other from the beginning. The only problem was that she would come only at 8.30 a.m. and go away at 6 p.m. Sunday was her day off. So, it was straight from work to mothering and back again without a moment in between.

I went back to work after about two months. At first, I used to come home for lunch and some time with Aditya. But he was usually soundly sleeping at that time, and with summer coming upon us, I found that the net result was that I was totally fagged out and did not get to interact with the baby either. So I gave up that futile practice.