The Joys and Pains of Pregnancy and Promoting my Steemit Blog on BBC Radio 5 Live!

in parenting •  7 years ago 

The Buzz of Live Radio

Having been on maternity leave for the past year I had forgotten what the buzz of live radio felt like. Today I got an opportunity to be a guest on the Emma Barnett Show on BBC Radio 5 Live. It's a popular daytime talk radio programme and one of the topics they were discussing today was pregnancy and physical side of being pregnant. Any of you that have read my previous blog entries will know that I have quite a lot to say about this subject!

Morning Sickness

I experienced quite bad "morning" sickness with all my pregnancies which continued for 4 months into the pregnancy. Weirdly enough, each time I got pregnant I thought I would get away without being sick. In fact I forgot how sick I actually felt in those early days of pregnancy. Had that memory been etched in my mind, I would only have had one child!

The Pregnancy Glow

During the the first trimester of pregnancy I was far from glowing. In fact I gave off a pale grey zombie-like glare! However, after 4 months I began to feel better and developed that rosy glow and a new found confidence in my pregnancy body. That was the most enjoyable part of being pregnant. The second trimester is also when I started to feel the baby kicking, which was a lovely and exciting feeling.

People Touching my Belly

Another weird thing about being pregnant is random people thinking it's OK to touch your belly. I'm quite a tactile person and didn't mind family and friends stroking my stomach. However, when random strangers did it I was slightly disturbed!

Listen to the Interview

You can listen to the full interview here:

It was great being back in a radio studio again, this time on the other side of the desk. I'm happy that the presenter mentioned my blog MummyImperfect a couple of times and if you Google that the first thing that comes up is my Steemit page :)

Here's a link to the full show if you want to have a listen. I come in at around 2.21 in the programme. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09llgwr

MummyImperfect x

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nice post

Nice

Good

I will try to restrain myself in future, thought humans are like cats and love a good belly rub

Yep. I don’t think a scratch behind the ears would go down well either! Lol

I know men don't realize everything a woman has to endure and go through during pregnancy. hang in there and stay positive. we as men applaud woman who take it in stride and set an example of how to stay tough and compassionate. @mummyimperfect

Thank you. It's nice when men appreciate what women go through to keep the human race going :)

Hey, congrats on your interview! I'm not a mom yet, but loved watching it. And something I probably will hate in my pregnancy is people touching my belly. Weir, isn't it. Good job!

Thank you :)
Yes it was weird. I felt like my belly suddenly became public property without my knowledge!

@mummyimperfect, I am very proud of you. My wife has been pregnant 5 times. We are blessed with 5 wonderful kiddos, but the journey and the changes on her body have been difficult at times.

I am excited to hear that you are starting to feel better. That first trimester can be horrendous. Keep moving forward. Keep getting stronger, and keep Steeming!

Wow five! That’s nice, I like big families but couldn’t handle having anymore now.
Thanks for reading.

The pains of child birth and the joys of motherhood. I give utmost respect to mothers for they deserve it a million times. Sometimes, when I read about different experiences of child delivery, I'm always like "would I want to put someone through this?". But then again, we are humans, the universe has a way of making the memory faint to us.
nice one on your comeback to the studio

Yes it’s certainly not easy but it’s what we were designed to do. It’s nice when people appreciate us mums for doing it though :)

My bestie solved the stranger rubbing the belly perfectly. She would smile and rub said stranger’s belly... then walk away. Point. Made.

Lol good one!!

thank you, your post

How cool! I definitely enjoyed my pregnant body. I felt such confidence in how I looked. I would keep having babies just for that feeling LOL

  • Kareen

Ditto! It’s the only time I could rock a bodycon dress with confidence!

Wonderful! Congrats on being interviewed and thanks for promoting the platform here.

Thank you. I’m always looking to promote Steemit at any opportunity I can :)

haha, you had me with the touching the belly thing. I had that too, all the time! And every time I was completely flabbergasted. The liberty some people take...Once I was in the shop when I was pregnant with the youngest. This friendly older man asked me if it was my first child (no, I always run around with some random kids...). When I told him it was my fourth we chatted for a little while and when I went on to do my shopping, he said: Now, don't let me see you pregnant again after this one... I mean: WTF??? A perfect stranger telling me not to have any more kids? Not that I planned any more, but still...stay on your side of the fence buddy! And the morning sickness, I was lucky I only had it really badly with my second. And when I say bad, I mean really, really bad. I used to work in a different city and had to take the train, so I would ride my bicycle to the train station. Every morning I would get sick, on the bicycle....I'd go into work and be fine. And on the way back: same thing. It was like an extended-into-the-evening morning sickness....And how great that you were on that show, going to listen to it now!

Omg I can’t believe that guy said that to you! The things that people say! I could write another long post about stuff random people said to me when they found out I was expecting my third girl (they enquired so I told them). It ranged from “never mind” to “now you definitely have to try again for number 4, maybe then you will get a boy!” Crazy!
Thanks for your support.

I was with my elder sister all through her pregnancy period and i stayed with her even in the Labour ward. It wasn't easy cause of the numerous mood swings, wierd food craving, tantrums and so on. But the birthing process, was beautiful... so i understand all you went through... we are women! And we are strong!!!

With my last baby I fully appreciated how beautiful the birthing process was. It was an easier birth and I had more faith in my body by then. It’s miraculous that women can go through all of that and still live through it...then do it again!

Hi your articles are very interesting good going best of luck. I am following to u and your articles. I am new to steemit plz help me.

In this world , mother have that power , males can never bear that pain . This is applied for all mother's not only to human but also for animals

Yes it’s true. Men are strong in other ways but only women have the physical and mental strength to carry and give birth to children. Thanks for reading :)

That's so amazing to be interviewed by BBC radio! I understand that it's annoying when people touch your belly. There was once a little girl, a stranger, on the street suddenly hugged my belly. That was very sweet. I myself never had morning sickness for once, but I had extremely lower back pain. It was really painful and I am happy the pregnancies are over. Thanks for sharing your story/ interview :-)

That’s such cute story about the little girl hugging your belly. My friends used to do that to me, it was their way of giving love to the baby.
I’m also glad the pregnancies are over! During the 3rd one I got so tired at the end and knew it was the last time I wanted to do this!

Well, my sons want to have a little sister :-). I am pretty sure the third one will be a boy as well. Not that he wouldn't be welcome, but I would love to have a little daughter too. I think I am fine with two kids ;-). If I would like to have a third baby like you, then I think it would indeed be the last one. A friend of mine has 4 boys! she now is working full time because kids are expensive and her husband can not handle it anymore alone financially. She doesn't have any ME time and she is a few years younger than me.... It's nice to have kids but we also have to think about ourselves and if we can handle it financially and of course don't forget to take the birth control pill on time :-D

Lol yes we have to be responsible! I actually like big families but I know that physically and mentally I couldn't be a really good mum to more kids than I have now. Some people can but I need to have a bit of down time to recharge and keep up with my energetic bundles of joy!

Haha that was a great listen. It's been 3 years since I've been pregnant, so I haven't listen to anything preggers-related in a while.

It's so true that it's like we have amnesia about our previous pregnancies/birthing experiences, when we decide to try for another haha.. Mind you, I was very fortunate to have pleasant pregnancies (no morning sickness, manly just back pains and fun hormones!!) and very pleasant water/home births, and even then, it's no easy task.

I do wish we all give a lot more respect to mothers after birth than we do now though, us mothers almost never get the time we need to fully heal, and are usually expected to just up and go right after childbirth.

In the Chinese culture, it is usually custom for the mother to be in bed rest for a month after giving birth, with the main task of feeding her baby, and the whole family helps with everything else (sounds dreamy, right?). I didn't have this myself, but can you imagine how much this would help a woman heal and better find her motherly groove? I imagine it would also significantly lower the rates of postnatal depression, and would set mothers up with a good foundation to raise their children in a more wholesome way.

Let's hope our future generations will learn to give motherhood the honour and respect it deserves :)

Thanks so much for reading and for your comment. In Indian culture it's similar as the new mum stays in the house for 40 days to recover and just establish breastfeeding etc. There are also special nutritious foods that are made for new mums. It's nice when you have family around that can come and stay and help. These days sometimes people live too far from their families or everyone is super busy so they have to be up and about before they've even recovered.
I was lucky that my mum came to stay for a while when I gave birth to each baby.
Also I had a water birth with my third baby and it was lovely!

Oh I didn't know the Indian culture also encourages that, that's great to hear! And how nice that your mom came to help you in the beginning with each baby, lots of respect to her for doing that. I didn't have that kind of help myself, but will definitely be doing this for my girls when it's their turn (hopefully not for another 25 years at least!)..

And nice to know you also had a water birth experience, wasn't it just so nice to be floating in water and not have to feel all the pregnancy heaviness? I also had gas and air for both water births, and I do have to say the combination was pretty heavenly, as far as birthing experiences go ;)

Water birth + gas and air is a great pain reliever. I got in to the warm water at the point when I couldn't take any more pain and it was so soothing!...definitely better than having an epidural and lying on a hospital bed which I did the previous two times!

I can imagine! That's why I always recommend water births to my pregnant friends :)

keep it up...enjoy with it..
upvoted

Thank you

I followed your previous blog posts and learned about your night out without you children after 10 years. i can easily conclude you are a great mother as I get biased with Indian mother's dedication whenever I look back at my mothers sacrifices for a devil son like me. :)

Devil son! Haha I’m sure you are not that bad. All kids have devil moments but start appreciating their parents more as they grow up. Thanks for following my blog :)

God bless all the pregnant mummies. It is not an easy thing to carry a baby in the belly for 9 months. Kudos to every female out there.

Yes big respect to all the mamas out there. Some of them make it look easy but it’s not.

my wife is 6 months pregnant and she tells me to do lots of things for her . she tells me its what the baby wants. lol. i do them. she can get me to do anything for her on the guise of the baby wanting it. i get you totally.

Lol! You’re wife sounds awesome! I hope you are fulfilling her requests :)

amazing , i try my best to promote steemit via social media youtube , twitter , telegram & facebook over 2000 persons join us:)

Had that memory been etched in my mind, I would only have had one child!

(smiles) hello @mummyimpect, there is an adage in my local dialect that when loosely translated says, " you will not forsake wars because of killing" same thing applies here ma'am, if you look at the pain, you ladies will stick to pets.

people touching your tummy while you are with child is considered a good omen here. congrats on a safe delivery. enjoy.

@arinzechukwu from Nigerian.

Thanks for reading @arinzechukwu
I had my 3rd baby a year ago now. I was just on the radio show because they were talking about pregnancy and found my blogs about my pregnancy experiences.

Okay ma'am, congratulations anyways. Thanks for the follow up, will start posting soon, hope to be reading more from you.

Good job! Way to go :)). And yes, I agree - we have no idea what pregnancy - or motherhood - are all about and what we are getting into. I was thinking about creating a more "honest" and humorous manual about being a mom.

You should totally do that! There is a lot of comedy material in motherhood!

Congratz 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥