Navigating pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum

Date: Dec 30, 2025

I'm sharing this post about my experiences during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum, at the 15-month postpartum mark. My experiences might be similar to and still very different compared to most non-US nationals staying in the US currently. 

My husband and I managed to welcome our child into this world and raise her for 10.5 months ourselves without our family, aka 'village' in the US. Our family from India could visit the US after our daughter turned 10.5 months old. This year has been the most challenging in my life. When I think about this past year, what stands out isn’t just the challenges, but also the strength that came from them.

My husband and I already knew that we would have to manage everything, including self-care and child care, ourselves when we found out about the pregnancy. We had accepted the fact that our family would not be able to visit us during the crucial early postpartum period. We took all the childbirth education classes offered by the healthcare provider and the free online resources. I was fortunate that I had a health insurance plan through my employer in the US. My prenatal and postnatal visits were covered up to approximately 75% cost under my health insurance plan. I still had to pay USD 4000+ out-of-pocket since healthcare is very expensive in the US.

Our primary focus was to develop our physical and mental strength throughout this journey. The healthcare providers were very helpful in answering any questions throughout my 9 months of pregnancy and have been useful while raising our daughter in 15+ months. Since this is our first child, there were a lot of new lessons learned. We also hired an elderly lady to cook for us in the first two months postpartum and enrolled our daughter in daycare after her 9-month anniversary. It really helped with the work-life balance!  Apparently, there is a year-long wait time at most daycares, which is why parents should register their future child during pregnancy itself. We weren’t aware of this fact. Most of the people had discouraged us in this journey, stating that it is impossible to manage the postpartum period ourselves. My mother and father always encouraged me and provided positive support. Honestly, we did everything that was needed to get through ourselves, and we survived!

I will go into more details in the following stories.

My pregnancy:

I had a very smooth pregnancy. I had nausea in the first semester only, which caused a lot of fatigue and skipping of meals. I had increasing body pain (back and pelvic) towards the end of the third semester. I followed all the online physical and mental therapy exercises throughout my pregnancy.

My birth story: 

I delivered my baby girl vaginally on D day (39 weeks+4 days of prenatal duration). I had intense pelvic pressure and lower back pain on (D-2) evening. I was admitted to the hospital with a lost mucus plug  and 0% dilation at 6 am on (D-1) day; My low BP was dropping my daughter's heart rate. My BP and fetal heart rate were being monitored continuously. The doctors and nurses monitored me for around 20 hours before delivery to avoid performing a C-section surgery. They didn't let me have heavy meals and water, either. The doctors started Cervidil at 2 pm; I dilated up to 5 cm and -2 station with Cervidil in less than 12 hours; I had natural contractions and took an epidural. Doctors removed cervidil around 11.30 pm on (D-1) day.  I was lying on a peanut ball for around half an hour after 1 am on D day. I reached the +2 station quickly. I pushed my baby out for less than half an hour. Fortunately, I had a first-degree perineal tear only. There was only my husband present with me for all the 3 days of my stay at the hospital.

My lactation story:

I had difficulties while breastfeeding my daughter on day 3 of postpartum; I ordered a manual breast pump since I couldn't use an electric breast pump due to the large 24 mm flange size and limited knowledge of lactation and pumping. I visited a lactation specialist to learn more about lactation and feed my daughter properly for her growth and development. I learned that mothers don't need a smaller flange size because the default size of breast pumps has always been 24 mm since the beginning of the production and use of breast pumps. The breast pump manufacturers need more revenue against the competitors, so they design more complex shapes and patterns. I also successfully nursed my baby girl for 14 months continuously. :) We also introduced formula in bottles and mixed with Cerelac+fruit/vegetable purees after she turned 5 months old. 

My postpartum story:

I suffered through postpartum symptoms such as stomach cramps, bleeding (lochia), backache, neck and pelvic pain, etc., throughout the first month and still cared for our baby with my husband as the only in-person support. Fortunately, we had hired help in cooking meals. Unfortunately, I lost my mother after 3 months of postpartum due to blood cancer. My postpartum was definitely more painful than my pregnancy. I'm grateful that I could take 14 intermittent weeks of maternity leave through my employer in this postpartum.

2025 tested me more than any year of my life and changed everything. My priorities, my strength, and how deeply I value time, health, and family. 

I learned important life lessons. Here are my tips to other pregnant/postpartum mothers and fathers:

• People will provide countless pieces of advice, but you do what's best for you in your circumstances. 
• Traditional pregnancy/postpartum advice is only helpful to certain limits. For example, pregnant women should not stop exercising or weight-lifting entirely during pregnancy. They should continue most of the physical and mental exercises which they used to follow during the pre-pregnancy duration after consultation with professional doctors/gynaecologist/physical therapists.
• No one should expect you to return to pre-pregnancy weight immediately within 1 year of the postpartum period or shame you ever. Baby blues and depression are really very serious symptoms. You should do everything possible to preserve your mental sanity.
• You should do everything to have a smooth pregnancy and postpartum, but things always go out of control, and you should never be blamed or feel guilty/shame for anything.

In this age of the internet, it is very easy to find great helpful resources for pregnancy and postpartum support. I found the following useful resources from my healthcare providers and my personal research:

• Breastfeeding -- https://med.stanford.edu/newborns/professional-education/breastfeeding.html; firstdroplets.com/?sfns=mo ; 
• Physical therapy (pregnancy, birth and postpartum) -- https://mamastefit.com/; https://www.ayeshabhonsle.com/