This Is Why I Think The Recent Ad On Pregnancy By Myntra Is Misleading

Though everyone can’t stop going gaga over the recent ad on pregnancy by Myntra, a woman who went through the same has a different view.

I loved, and more loved the fact that somebody thought about it and made it, and yet I cannot but wonder!

Is the only way to prove is to deny your body the changes, the rest it demands, those morning sicknesses and hormonal upheaval, and the only way to women empowerment is just to HAVE TO put up a strong brave face and make sure to be around as if it’s all absolutely the same? Come on… it IS different, it IS unusual, we are growing a whole damn human being inside our body and it is being made out of our very blood, flesh and nutrition… you feel so thirsty and sleepy, you need to pee and to have food every fifteen minutes, you need to reduce stress so that the brain of the baby that’s growing inside you gets a peaceful environment to develop.The baby CAN actually sense the stress, the turmoil- and what is worse that the effects can be permanent.

I have myself stood put right there and fought it out, and instead at my office they’d give me two times the normal task which required me to work till 4 every morning. They couldn’t be sure I’ll come back and also didn’t want me to unfairly take away salary for the months I’ll be away – so they made me make and dry run everything that will be due around that time. Plus, not to mention, the behaviour!! “How many times do you take/ minutes do you take to snack?”/ “3 times/ 15 minutes”/ “can you bring it down to two times, ten minutes each time?”/ “well you know… I have gestational diabetes and if I don’t eat enough my baby gets no food!” – such were the negotiations, day in and day out, with 4-5 men and I in a room everyday which took 1 hour at least – they always needed to ‘mend’ me around that time!

My gynae warned me several times… and, touchwood, I’ve been extremely lucky to have not had it impact my baby. I feel extremely proud that I stayed put, fought it out, took the maternity leave I deserved (“it is like a parasite to think of extracting maternity leaves” – my male boss with daughter and homemaker wife had told me!) and then after delivery, I went back, put in my papers, and served all the three months of notice because it helped me to save up and find the next job meanwhile, and then I changed my job right on their face! I feel it’s one of my biggest achievements t have been able to reply to them that way.

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But at the same time – is martyrdom the only way left for us to survive?

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