Sruti Nakkhul, a baker and chef by profession and actor Nakkhul Jaidev’s wife, recently took to social media to discuss the need to choose the right birth plan and make informed choices pertaining to childbirth. Sharing an Instagram reel taken at the time she gave birth to her first child Akira, Sruti opened up and shared insights from her own birthing experience. In her post, Sruti explains how she felt empowering and respectful during childbirth. She also extended her gratitude to the midwife who helped her at the time-Dr Vijaya. “August 2nd 2020 The day that both our lives changed forever. After hearing so many traumatic birth experience of so many women I know and so many other women I don’t even know, experiencing such an empowering, respectful maternity care makes me feel so blessed and I’m truly grateful for my Midwife Dr. Vijaya Ma’am @sanctumbirthcenter !!,” the post reads.
The couple chose water birth as the delivery method. A water birth entails part of the labour or delivery or both the former and latter taking place while the birth giver is in a birth pool filled with warm water. Considered to be an alternative approach to labour, water birth typically takes place in a hospital, a birthing center or at home, under the care and supervision of health professionals such as a doctor and midwife. In the video, we see Sruti giving birth while being seated in what appears to be a bathtub at the Sanctum birth centre in Hyderabad, run by Dr Vijaya Krishnan. We see actor Nakul seated behind his wife, while a health care professional, likely to be the midwife, assists Sruti and is seen helping her with the child birth in the video.
Sruti explains further that she chose to upload the video of one of the most precious moments from the couple’s lives, hoping that people would educate and provide respectful maternity services and options for all the women out there. She also speaks up against invalidating birth givers’ experiences, in the post. “Do not brush aside and invalidate any birth giver’s experience by saying “You have a healthy baby at the end of the day so forget everything else and be happy“ It does not happen that way and it’s so unfair. Take a moment and talk to your friends or mothers or sisters who have given birth and ask them about their experience. You will be mind boggled with the amount of information they remember. A birth giver will ALWAYS remember how they were treated during labour,”she states.
She also adds that the negative or painful birthing experiences of other birth givers cannot be belittled by citing instances of safe and healthy child birth. “Last but not the least, yes every single minute there’s someone in the world giving birth. That’s how common it is so many may feel that it’s normal & not a big deal because they didn’t face issues. From the bottom of my heart, I’m happy for them. But that does not give anyone the right belittle someone else’s experience/ trauma or pain.”
She concludes the post by encouraging everyone to choose the right care providers who would understand the requirements and apprehensions of the birth givers rather than shunning their questions or shaming them. “Educate yourself before getting into such a huge decision. This is why we are forever grateful to @mayas_amma This is not just about natural birth. This is about being informed about the kinds of birth available, knowing the pros & cons AND THEN choosing what’s best for you. irrespective of natural birth or Csection. You can get married & if it does not work out, you can walk out of your marriage. But you cannot Un-have a child,” Sruti writes in her Instagram post.
Read the full post here;
Earlier, Sruti had also shared her thoughts and lessons about breastfeeding during the World Breastfeeding Week. Tamil actor and singer Nakkhul Jaidev welcomed their baby girl on August 2, 2020.