Opinion Breaking the news
When I got to know that I was pregnant,my first instinct was to call my mother.
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When I got to know that I was pregnant,my first instinct was to call my mother. But I resisted the urge and instead dialled my doctor. It was necessary to get it confirmed first. She assured that home tests were 99 per cent accurate,but called me the next day for a quantitative blood test,which was to put a stamp on it. But the journalist in me could not sit on the breaking news for that long. I called up my mother,followed by sisters,and was immediately warned not to tell anybody beyond the immediate family about it so soon. But I had a house full of guests then and could not avoid letting them in on my big secret.
By the end of that week,the only people who knew were our parents,my sister-in-law,brother,sisters,their immediate families,my dozen-odd aunts,uncles,aunts-in-law and uncles-in-law and their families,a few of our very few friends and some of our colleagues… phew! And after the first USG,my excited husband could not stop himself from scribbling a status message on Facebook,which he claimed was vague but few on his friend list thought so,with half of them having already gone through the experience. As a result,I was soon flooded with queries and good wishes from at least a hundred people.
The common question that all parents-to-be are faced with is when should you actually break the news? The first three months are very crucial,as experts say,and there are often chances of a miscarriage. Hence,it is always advisable to let the good news known to people at least after 12 weeks. And this has always been the case traditionally. But there are certain practical issues that you need to weigh against this advice,especially if you are a working woman like me. Women usually don’t get to know about the big change in their body until six weeks of pregnancy,and hence the crucial period gets automatically reduced to half. My doctor did not ask me to stop working,but I was told to be careful,keeping stress and exhaustion at bay. I was advised to listen to my body — if it says no to work after a certain point,I have no option but to slow down. Hence,taking the boss into confidence was necessary.
Similarly,in certain complicated cases,women are advised to completely sit at home during the entire first trimester. In that case,too,breaking the news to office is unavoidable. You can certainly do with some sympathy at this stage,and hence keeping the big news to yourself does not always make much sense. And it is also not a problem if you take more,and longer,breaks to make those washroom trips. Besides,if you are in office for six to eight hours,your doctor will definitely ask you to take at least two small meal breaks. Make sure to arrange for a footrest and a backrest. You will need them as your pregnancy progresses.
And it goes without saying that since all these conditions are unavoidable,you cannot really do without telling people about your condition.
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