“Is it a girl or a boy?”

 In the labour room at GMC Kolhapur, where a minimum of 20 vaginal deliveries take place in a span of 24 hours, resident doctors and interns interact with multiple pregnant women in labour.

Guiding them through the process of labour and successfully conducting the delivery of the baby,

The first question that the new mother asks her doctor, even before her placenta has been delivered is not- is my baby alright?

It is-

“Is it a girl or a boy?”

We might think we have moved forward from the gender bias as a country, but this illusion breaks into shards when- a new mother starts crying, the minute I tell her, it’s a girl.

As I continue stitching her episiotomy, she continues to cry and refuses to see or hold her baby. In another instance, the girl child’s grandmother refuses to accept the child and leaves her on the bench outside the labour room.

Seeing women and their relatives faces relieved and light up when they’re told- it’s a boy, in comparison to the earlier instance, as a doctor and even more so as a woman, more than disappointment, brought a sinking feeling.

30 days into my rotation, I decided I’d try and do something different.

Everytime I went and handed over a girl child to their relatives, I would smile and say- “maushi, Lakshmi aali, mala mithai pahije”

(Goddess Lakshmi has come to your home, you must distribute sweets today!)

It was slow, but I began to notice how the relatives would register what I said and smile. They would promise us the sweets and smile, however faint it was.

This marked the beginning, of me realising, doctors do hold the power to influence, to bring about change, not only with their knowledge and skills, but also with their words.