Chewing the cud

In this day and age this should not matter, but will it be a male or a female continued to linger on my mother's mind. After having 3 male offsprings added to the family in the last five years, my mother was determined to see a female offspring. Though Maneka Gandhi, Minister of Women and Child Development had recently voiced her opinion about having the law preventing determination of gender of the fetus repealed, but there was no way for my mother to determine the gender of Lakshmi's fetus until birth. Thank god!

Setting aside the unsolved question, she summoned the doctor for periodic home visits to ensure Lakshmi was healthy and she would have a complication free delivery. With three more weeks for the arrival of the new born, she was ready with her home made remedies to nurse and care for Lakshmi on her second delivery. 

My mothers love for Lakshmi and little one was definitely beyond gender of the new born. She pitied every time Lakshmi found it difficult to stand up after she sat down on the floor. She visited as soon as she woke up every morning and kept her bedroom windows overlooking Lakshmi shelter ajar, in case she delivers at night. There were also a few days when she had to travel outside the town and she often called to check on Lakshmi and ensured there was someone care for her. 

For Lakshmi many others in the rural home delivery meant comfort and happiness, though urbanites knew of home delivery from point of view of food joints and e-commerce sites. It was early afternoon, Lakshmi went into labor after lunch. My mother got anxious as soon as Lakshmi went into labor and she texted me as she was getting ready to play the mid wife as she awaited the veterinarian. We all said a little prayer for Lakshmi to have a safe and trouble free delivery.

And within an hour into labor the new born was delivered and the 39 weeks wait to know the gender also came to an end. My mother got busy nursing Lakshmi and the little one, but she quickly sent me a picture of the new born and announced that the hat trick with males continued. She confirmed that the little one was healthy, quickly stood up on four legs and Lakshmi was on her legs happily nursing the calf.

My mothers message made me compare and contrast delivery and associated commotion in the human world versus animal world. Periodic ultrasounds, health check ups, counseling sessions to unsolicited advices from friends and relatives on postpartum and child care often leave women in maternity overwhelmed. While Lakshmi had an easy home delivery under medical supervision and was given home remedies. She didn't have postpartum issues and went back to her routine faster than Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo. 

Lakshmi was happily back on her feet in two hours, chewing the cud and licking the new born. Importantly, Lakshmi didn't have to go through books to find an appealing name for her new born; my mother simply named him "Narayana" as he was born on a Wednesday. 

Lakshmi's sister, Saraswathi was impregranted a few days before Narayan's birth. If everything goes well and as per plan in less than 40 weeks Narayana will have a first cousin and Lakshmi will become an aunt. As always, my mother will get busy with her preparations and will continue to pray for a female calf, which is more valuable in the material world for its milk. I went to bed that night thinking why is gender and child birth and rearing so planned, yet so complicated in the human world.