10. The D-Day!

My wife got admitted on the night of 4th October when we went for a regular checkup, ten days before the due date. We stayed overnight in the delivery suite. Next day morning our parents joined us.

She was having strong contractions. The doctor ordered us to take a seat in the sofa, and closed the curtains. I wonder why in India they still don’t allow the husband to be with his wife during normal delivery.

As we waited tensions were rising. I could hear the doctor shout, “Don’t push yet, take deep breath” a couple of times. After few minutes I heard them again. This time they shouted, “Push! Push! Push!”… Then there was silence. Then again “Push! Push! Push!”… and again silence. “Push! Push! Push!”…silence….“Push! Push! Push!”…silence….“Push! Push! Push!”… and then we heard the baby cry! I could see tears rolling down the cheeks of both our moms. My eyes? They were dry, so was my throat. She chose the auspicious day of Navami to come out!

Mommy was doing well. She is a girl who doesn't take a single moment to cry while watching movies, or because she unknowingly hurt someone. She is also a girl who went through the entire labor without shedding a single drop of tear. I overheard one of the Bengali aaya saying to another one from Madras with pride, "See? Have you ever seen anyone not shouting, crying, and making a scene while normal delivery? That is a Bengali girl! We are strong."

We are Indians, we love our state boundaries more than our country boundary. I whispered in my mind, she is strong not because she was born in a particular corner of India, but because she is SHE. Many times have her courage inspired me, and this was one such occasion. 

They showed us the baby. It was a princess…and she looked so cute…and then they took her away to the nursery. Guess we have to wait a bit longer.

She was an active baby weighing 2.94kgs with APGAR (five-point score of baby’s health) score of 9/10 within first 1min. Baby was also doing well.

This was the first day of the rest of her life.

We moved to our booked room. After a couple of hours my wife was transferred to the room, and after few more long hours, Hridhima. All of us were together, our family looked complete. There was another girl born few rooms from us. Apart from that there were 8 boys born on that day. I wondered why the sex ratio was so skewed. What happened to the other six girls who were never born? But it was not the right time to think about that, it was time to enjoy with our family.

Since everything went smoothly, my wife was discharged the next day. 

But then we had our first scare. Within 48hours Hridhima was admitted to the nursery again with jaundice. It was minor and we learnt that it is very common in babies. 

Bilirubin is a yellow substance produced by the body when red blood cells break down. It passes through the liver and is then excreted from the body. Before the baby is born, mom’s liver does the job of removing the bilirubin through the placenta. Once the baby is born and the placenta is disconnected, baby’s liver must take over. The handover takes couple of days. So, the first few days the bilirubin may spike up and baby turn yellow. Nothing to worry about, we are told. 24 hours of photo-treatment and she was back to her active healthy state. 

I had another interesting observation that day. Not a single delivery happened on that day as all rooms were empty. Puja was over; everyone chose an auspicious time to have their child, so what if it was not normal delivery? That’s India. But again, not the right time to think about it, Hridhima was healthy, and we were happy!