Imagine a day filled with powerful conversations, brilliant speakers, senior doctors from motherhood hospitals and passionate mothers and mothers-to-be! MiniRoo presents the Mamahood Project today (March 23) at Park Hyatt, Chennai — an entire day to focus on one of the most important aspects of our society and its future.
MiniRoo is a passion-project of moms Aditi Prasad and Vishwa Dave aimed at curating noteworthy experiences and events for parents and kids on a bimonthly basis across fields of parenting, education, shopping and entertainment.
The Mamahood Project enriches, engages and empowers parents with powerful conversations by contributing to the social and emotional wellness of their families and the society as a whole. The Mamahood Project is a first-of-its-kind expert speaker series across topics that really matter. From pregnancy to breastfeeding, kids’ nutrition to postpartum Fitness and everything in between.
Relevant topics
Some of the topics will be —‘Handing Your Toddler’s Behaviour in a Positive Way’ by parent educator Prerna Kalra and Aarabi Veeraraghavan, ‘Food and Nutrition for Kids’ by Meghana Narayan, ‘Postpartum Depression: Identifying and Coping’ by Dr. Jaishree Gajaraj. Another speaker will be Dr. Sharanya Thiagarajan. There will be a talk by Dr. Premalatha Balachandran on ‘Pregnancy and Labour’ and another by Rakhi Kapoor, accomplished physiotherapist and counsellor. ‘Breastfeeding Basics and Challenges’ by Dr Sonali Santhanam and ‘Prenatal and Postnatal Fitness’ by Deepti Akki, wil be other topics while the interesting ‘Taking Better Photos of Your Kids Using Your Cellphone’ will be by Amrita Samant.
“We, as mothers, have had our own share of struggles and doubts through pregnancy and beyond. ‘Am I doing this right?’ is a question we ask ourselves more often that we realise. I remember spending nights worrying about my low lying placenta during my pregnancy. Although I did have my OB-GYN as a solid support system, I was yearning to find women who might have had a similar situation so that I can hear their stories and get a sense of community support.
The Mamahood Project will not only educate women on topics that really matter but its interactive platform will help women fearlessly ask their doubts, get answers, build relationships and gain real value from the sessions”, say Aditi Prasad and Vishwa Dave.
The duo also believes while there might be tons of apps and abundant knowledge on the subject on the Internet, the thing one cannot discount is the in-built anxiety that comes with pregnancy and how it gets fuelled even more so by certain do’s and don’ts that might be mere myths. Awareness is the only way myths can be debunked, and the more information one has on pregnancy, the more at ease they can be. While one can get the facts from experts at the Mamahood Project, they can also hear real stories of new mothers to be able to relate and understand their situation better.
With more Indian women doing away with societal taboo regarding breastfeeding in public, the awareness regarding it is the key to help people understand the benefits of breast milk. “We need written breastfeeding policies that are routinely communicated to the hospital staff in every birth centre and hospital. Also, the support system and community matters, we need to make it easier for women to feed. To have feeding rooms and pumping rooms is important. Recent reports from the WHO indicate that suboptimal breastfeeding practices such as non-exclusive breastfeeding in the first 6 months account for 11.6% of preventable deaths in children fewer than 5. This translates to 8,00,000 infants deaths per year globally. Breast milk is Liquid Gold. It is full of probiotics that seed the infants’ gut or intestines with good bacteria. This protects babies from gastrointestinal infections such as enterocolitis or diarrhoea, which is so common India. Breast milk has immune factor and stem cells, anti-cancerous properties. People need to know just how miraculous breast milk is. Another thing is the belief that newborns need water in this hot and humid weather. Water is non nutritive. The fore milk quenches thirst and hind milk is full of fat and helps with hunger”, states Dr Sonali Santhanam.
With fitness being the new cool, moms are ever ready to shed those extra kilos gained during pregnancies but often fall prey to wrong diet and exercises that do more harm than good.
“Yes, the problem is wrong guidance, bad diets, no lifestyle change and it’s a temporary solution. They do more harm and make the muscles or joints weaker which results in back pain causing injuries. The main reason is a lack of expert opinion. The solution is to stabilise the joints and muscles for two months post pregnancy”, explains Deepti Akki.
Postpartum depression among Indian mothers is a reality that we often tend to overlook due to the very structure of family and societal norms and thus goes untreated.
“Awareness is very minimal Many don't know such a condition exists those who are aware will deny the possibility. Usually it is the family who will suspect it. Creating a happy atmosphere around her always helps”, says Dr. Jaishree Gajaraj.
