When I got pregnant and informed about my coming maternity leaves in office, two of my seniors were also pregnant. One, my ex manager, was 6 months ahead of me and another lady from HR department was close to her 7- month of pregnancy. We, three, used to discuss about how we were feeling, how we were managing office and home, out diets and other pregnancy stuff. I came to know that they both had decided to come to office till their very last day of pregnancy. This means they were ready to face situation when their labour could start in office only. I had meticulously decided to go to my mother's place so that everything could be managed properly. That's why I was nervous about them. How they would handle their water break while being in office? Would that not be embarrassing?
Honestly I was little apprehensive about pregnancy and going to office with flashing the baby bump. So I secretly disclosed about it to my manager and she informed other team mates. I was scared about my team's reaction for my pregnancy. But to my surprise, my team mates were really awesome. They were like my family who cared so much for me during that time. They used to ask me if I needed tea/coffee every hour. If anyone was going to cafeteria, they used to ask me if I needed anything from there. I used to bring many fruit boxes and used to offer it to my team mates. One of my team mates, Ankush, whenever took something from the fruit box, he always said sorry to my unborn baby. He used to do it with giving me reasoning that he was taking baby's share. Discussions started happening close to my seat and people used to comfort me in whatever way they could. I realized that I was being unreasonable with my office mates. When someone from them asked me jokingly "What should we do if your water breaks while you’re here?” I was bewildered and had no clear answer. One team mate offered to drive me to the hospital, if that were to occur. I found that they were ready for any unusual happening like my labour start, while I was not.
There would be many other women who are going through this phase. They want to work until their due dates. And they are afraid of something embarrassing happening like water break during a meeting or in front of a boss. Unfortunately, there is no way to avoid the inevitable. We can't control labour start (mostly). But we can do our best to come up with a plan. Foremost would be "Let’s face it". Going into labour in an unfamiliar place may not be the most ideal situation for any pregnant lady. The key to pass through it is, "Not let it stress you out." Make sure to have a contingency plan ready for when it does happen. Talk to your office-mates about such situation and make them ready to handle it. Make a note of your husband's number and hospital details, and share it with your office mates. You can keep few things which you want to carry when going to hospital in your office drawer. Society is changing and so have changed the conventions for pregnant ladies. People are now more caring and more empathetic towards them. And Pregnancy is not about feeling embarrassed, it's about being proud of for creating a new life. I can now understand why my friends decided to work until their due dates.
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