The need of the hour is complete care, proper guidance as to complications and problems, constant sympathy, balanced diet, periodical check-up and corrective and preventive measures to pre-empt odd and agonizing symptoms.
* When menses do not appear, after last cohabitation, it is considered to be a sure sign of onset of pregnancy. But, menses may also not appear due to other causes which need to be investigated. Stoppage of menses is not a firm indication of pregnancy. Hence, in order to be doubly sure, a pregnancy test may be had by examining urine of the pregnant(!) woman, which will confirm (or otherwise) taking place of pregnancy. Nothing should, in fact, be left to chance and conjectures, the reason being that when pregnancy is confirmed, through urine test, the prospective mother is required to be given special care, diet etc.
* If there is confirmed pregnancy, the lady would not like to work, will get a bit inactive, prefer to have rest-in-bed, discharge more saliva.
* There may be occasional nausea and a tendency to vomit, tendency to yawn which symptoms last upto 3rd or even 4th month. Though nausea, vomiting and yawning are natural consequences of pregnancy, and no medicine is called for to quell such symptoms which often subside /disappear after the 3rd/4th month but, when vomiting persists and there are repeated vomits, the same must be controlled, otherwise there is every likelihood that she may even abort at a premature stage.
* It there is premature abortion, the lady should be given complete rest-in-bed and if there is bleeding, it must be controlled within the minimum possible time, apart from attending to other fallout symptoms.
* After two months breasts start enlarging and there is slight pain and tenderness also. Even an ordinary touch/ contact will be painful.
% Nipples and areola (area around nipples) will get darker, that is there would be redness around them.
* Some sticky white fluid may emerge when nipples are pressed, but the same would disappear during last days of pregnancy.
* The lady does not feel presence of uterus during first three months but, in the fourth month, it could be felt under the pubic region. In the sixth month uterus touches the navel portion. Thereafter, the navel also erects, smarts and protrudes, with gradual increase in weight, size and shape of abdomen whose veins get distended and abdominal pressure tends downwards.
* In ordinary course, pregnancy period lasts for 280 days (that is, roughly 9 months and 10 days) but child may be born 2-3 days earlier or later than span of 280 days, which is not considered unnatural or abnormal. But, if there is too early delivery, the born child may be weak and underweight, or else if there is an inordinate delay, the doctor may have to affect delivery through an operation; the reason being life of mother and child ought to be saved at any cost, lest there is danger to life of either or both.
* If, for any reason, a child is born in the seventh month, the same does not survive in most of the cases, but a child born after the seventh month often survives.
* It is not easy to predict and pin-point exact day of child’s birth. General rule is that the date should be reckoned from the day of stoppage of last menses. For example, if a woman had her last menses on 10th of January, the exact date should be reckoned from 11th January and 280 days added to the said date—though actual delivery may take place ahead of the scheduled time or may take place even slightly later. This variation can also be attributed to the fact that the lady might have forgotten the day when her menses had ceased. But, all such rules are merely of academic interest due to certain variations.

It is imperative that the lady, after she has delivered the child, should have complete rest in bed for, at least, three weeks. In post-delivery period, child’s care is the major concern, hence she may not be able to support and respond to her husband’s sexual advances as heretofore, even though she is now in a far better and healthy mental frame but, even then, may lack in attending to her husband’s sex needs. The method, as suggested in the foregoing paragraphs, may be adhered to. Any act, overt or covert, must not be construed as a signal of hatred or neglect otherwise it can cause long lasting feud between them.
Once there is reemergence of menses, the lady will herself invite her husband. But, I feel, a sex holiday for at least six weeks is all the more necessary. Such a recess will augur well for the lady’s general health. Further, if another conception takes place soon after first child’s birth, mother’s health won’t stay in normal condition, apart from adversely affecting new-born’s rearing up process and also putting a family’s financial resources under strain. The lady has to be more selective, discreet and prudent in working out priorities with regard to her own self, husband and child—rather family as a whole, as she is the sole pivot of all the family activities and virtues.
It has been rightly said that family is the eternal home of civic virtues—rather it is in the family that one learns dynamics of various relationships, interaction parleys, behavior and temperamental attitudes, social behavior etc. Let us not overlook and forget role of a mother who is a prime instrument in molding a child’s multi-faceted personality. There cannot be a better teacher than a mother who, sadly, is a neglected lot and not much has still been done, cogent and useful, to salvage her lost prestige and status in India, at least. If we wish to have a healthy nation, let us first of all, take care of lady of the house, in whose absence/illness, entire house and all members go into disarray. Most of the Indian women are not assertive like their western counterparts—rather the former are much more submissive, relenting, yielding and prefer to play a second fiddle.
Let us not forget that ‘gods live there, where women are worshiped’ which saying seems to be merely a euphoria and not a reality. If men folk desire to enjoy a happy and healthy family life, they must ensure that lady of the house is cared/looked after well. If anything is done to the contrary, there is nothing ahead, except a total calamitous devastation. The ladies, too, have to ensure that they also contribute their mite in this respect, as total well-being and health is their concern too. The ladies have to themselves create a niche for themselves. Remember the old good maxim ‘If you laugh the world will laugh with you but, if you weep, you weep alone.’ Then the simplest and easiest bargain is to laugh and create situations wherein others also could laugh and, still better, laugh with you and share your happiness and joy.