“When the baby is born and you hold the baby for the first time in your hands, we feel so much love and responsibility towards the child at the same time”, says Malika Sadani.
Baby. Daughter. Girl. Woman. Businesswoman. Mother. Chic. Slick. Stud in the making.
Now the one in bold is really a choice. Or at least it should be. But either way, I would still put more brownie points in the women’s basket as childbearing is one part their counterparts can’t do. So this Mother’s Day, I am going to talk to you(all of you) about how can you make the entire process safer.
A non-sequitur reminder: Do you remember Serena Williams won the Australian Open while she was pregnant! Just saying.
Since I am neither a father, not a mother, I tried to get some help to understand pregnancy and motherhood safer. Enter Malika Sadani. She’s a mother of two beautiful daughters.
And she started The Moms Co. which provides non-toxic products for expecting mothers. Now I was a little skeptical, aren’t the baby products available in the market already toxic free? She responded with a resounding ‘No’. So, I did my own little search to understand the basis behind her response. What I found was the toxic lawsuit on Johnson & Johnson products containing carcinogens. Now, you might be aware, because according to the trail, it was a pretty big deal, still is.
Here’s an article which covers most of the what you need to know.
“My first daughter, Myraah, was born in London. There everything about pregnancy is pre-decided. They give you data to read and then you get to make your call on things. That is when I was introduced to harmful chemicals in baby products”, says Malika.
Malika is the daughter of a man from the armed forces. She remembers how the only time she stayed in one place for the longest period of time was during her Engineering. She completed her MBA in finances and pursued a job in Banking. She had moved with her husband to London for a project. She was in India when they were expecting her second daughter, Syna.
Malika had already read up on harmful ingredients found in products during first pregnancy. Naturally, she wanted the same for the second, but natural products were unavailable to procure here in India. Even the ones which were had some toxins which were banned in other countries.
“I had to import material from Europe. My in-laws, friends, or when my husband was traveling abroad. They brought stuff when they came to India. I even imported diapers!”
She went around asking other mothers, how they work a way around this. Not so surprisingly, she found they did exactly what she did. So she spent about 2 years researching ingredients, speaking to mums, toxicologists, doctors, manufacturers, et. al. and found that it’s extremely achievable to manufacture these products in India.
“A lot of mothers do extensive research online to find the products made from the safest ingredients. They’d avoid using products even if they’re alleged to be harmful or people are just speaking about them.”
She spoke about a lady she met during her research. She went into a building with broken stairs on the second floor, into a one bedroom apartment and she remembers speaking to her for long in her bedroom, how even in a remote location this lady made efforts to keep herself informed about the harmful nature of products and refused to use products with parabens and opted to use a costlier product.
After interacting with several mothers and going through the phase as well, Malika has an insight for you to make the experience safer.
“As mothers we usually tend to forget, that we as individuals also need to look after ourselves.”
Exercise, go to the gym. You can even do smaller activities like walking, cooking, the idea is to spare some time just doing just for you. Even fathers have a very important role to play.
Malika tells me how her husband, Mohit, helped her during and after her pregnancy. Reading to them in the morning, washing, bathing them, reading them books, going to their recitals.
So, spare a little time for yourself, you need it.
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On a completely unrelated note: Here is a story on Mother’s Day, I found in the New York Times and the video to go with it.
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