Free hit counter

Ok

By continuing your visit to this site, you accept the use of cookies. These ensure the smooth running of our services. Learn more.

02/02/2015

Babies made-in-India - 1. Fertility & Contraception

For starters, a small overview of childbirth and culture(s) in India...

 

india,birth,water birth,pregnancy,baby,infant,newborn,delivery,midwife,swaddling,swaddle,diaper,breastfeeding,hospital,fertility,contraception,sterilizationAt the beginning, I felt a little guilty of bringing into the world one more Indian (1): they are already so many... And they breed like rabbits, I thought! But not so much actually! The rabbits have seriously been controlling themselves in the past two decades...

 

Think of this: Indian women had 2.5 children each in 2012 – which is far from the 4.5 children they had just 20 years ago! (2) In fact the current rate is getting dangerously close to the minimum rate of 2.1 children per woman below which, without immigration and after a gap of thirty years, the population begins to decline.

 

Moreover almost all Indians I know have decided to have only one child because they want to "provide the best" for him and it is damn expensive to raise a child, with the education fares and all.

 

So how have they managed to change the trend? To start with, Indians have a radical enough, although controversial (because not always chosen freely) method: sterilization. And they don’t do things half way: 37% of married women are sterilized (for 1% of men)! Sterilization represents thus more than two-thirds of contraceptive means – and only one out of two couples today use a child birth control method.

 

There is a real lack of information: only 15% of the Indians between 15 and 24 have received some kind of sexual education. Not surprising when you know that the conservative parties (like the one currently running the country, whose leader (the Prime Minister) is incidentally not married lives without a female companion) have banned it in some States seven years ago, because sexual education would “give ideas to the youth”!

 

Among the (relatively few) couples who use a method of contraception that is not sterilization, the pill is not popular at all, even in cities – so that when I mention the pill to friends, it is common that they don’t know much about it. However, the i-pill is taking off quite fast; thanks to good marketing campaigns, girls swallow it as candy, ignoring (or choosing to ignore) its side effects.

 

(1) But in reality, technically, the baby is French since Indians do not recognize dual citizenship and a European passport has its charms... And he will have a PIO/OCI card, some sort of lifelong visa allowing him to buy and all.

                                                                                                                                 

(2) For reference, the French women have 2.0 children, the Chinese 1.7, the British and the American 1.9.

 

Sources: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.TFRT.IN; http://www.theglobalmail.org/feature/what-happens-when-half-the-world-stops-making-babies/573/; http://www.geocurrents.info/population-geography/indias-plummeting-birthrate-a-television-induced-transformation#ixzz3Q1R1nOej; http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-29999883; http://www.icmr.cami-health.org/articles/presentations/Session2-Speaker2-SKSikdar.pdf; http://world.time.com/2013/07/10/world-population-focus-on-India-part-1-sex-education/

 

(To be continued...)

11/20/2014

The rock 'n roll crib - Part 3

BUT NO!!! Once your dear husband has found the crib of his dreams, he is not going to compromise for second-class options: “don’t you think this crib is gliding a little too fast? and it’s annoying, you can’t dismantle it easily no? and it will not even last for a year!”. Back to square one...

It briefly crosses our minds to get the mini-crib done locally. Indians are masters of it. But for questions of security and patience, we quickly drop the idea. On top of that our recent experiences in this field have not been conclusive, to say the least (cf his tailor-made wedding suit and alliance he never wore (not even on the wedding day)).

This is when your dear husband finds the website that specializes in getting stuff from the US (transportation and customs). Cost: at least the price of what you are buying. But anyway we were ready to spend that much from the beginning – and when you buy from Mother Care in India, it is much more expensive than in England. Since he is at it he buys a mattress on this site, because who says unique crib says unique size of mattress (not found in India nor in France). And there, incredible but true, in one week the crib was in our living room! And assembled in less than ten minutes! And meeting the expectations of the dear husband! (this was far from given) And he got to try the do-it-yourself American-style (he could build his baby’s bed!!) Pfffiou... India,baby,craddle,crib,mini-crib

Let’s see now what use we will make of our beautiful cradle and how we will manage sleep with Junior! Because it is very easy to talk, we don’t know what we will really do!! So we will just do our best… And hope that the baby will not suffer from a “lack of love”, or “sense of insecurity” if he/she does not sleep with the mother for at least twelve months (after all I and my brothers are quite balanced despite sleeping methods judged barbaric)! 

The full story here: PDF

11/18/2014

The rock 'n roll crib - Part 2

No problem, only solution! You call your Indian friend on holidays in Los Angeles; you have THE mini-crib delivered to her by Amazon (and you get ready to put the same amount in the luggage supplement as you have put in the cradle)! And just before making the transfer on the airline website, you ask her to take measurements, just to be sure... And boom, it is just above the maximum oversized dimensions... You still want to check if the airline would not adjust for a few inches here and there but obviously it’s midnight and the offices in India are closed. So your friend, some 15 time zones away, offers to call them in the US, only to be redirected to... a call center in India. Of course. In short, the Indian staff repeats word for word what is written on the site, and the parcel is returned to the sender. As for us, we go back to our local solutions.

Which boil down to two Mother Care cribs, 0-6 months (and the Indian rocking ones which are just ugly, either in plastic or metal). We visit the store for the first time – we are now less than two months away from delivery, it is never too late! – to see the last piece on sale. Then we visit a British friend in one of the most beautiful towers in Mumbai to check out the other model that she is selling as second hand. Both options seem acceptable to me – let’s make a decision, how much energy can we spend for a bed??