As an American, why I love being pregnant in India

Me, being a pregnant woman.

So I guess, first of all, surprise! I’m pregnant. That happened. Pandemic baby is on the way. We are due in July. But it’s just crazy how many people think that I should deliver in the US. But what I realised is that pandemic aside, I really really enjoy being pregnant in India. Here are my top 5 reasons.

1. Firstly, we have to answer the question of citizenship. I love India and all but I definitely want my kid to at least start out as a US Citizen and then when they get older they can decide to give it up or not. Luckily I called my local embassy and they basically said it’s pretty straightforward to ensure the kid is a US citizen. I just need to prove that I lived in the US for some amount of time before 14 years, and then at least 5 years after I was 14 years old (something like that). Which is not hard because…well. I did. So they just said bring some proofs, fill out a document, and voila, the kid will get a US passport. It hasn’t happened yet, but I’m hoping it goes like they say it will. But so far it looks fine.
2. Did I mention India passed a law that made it mandatory for women to get 6 months of PAID MATERNITY LEAVE?! Yeah. Let me say that again. 6 MONTHS OF PAID MATERNITY LEAVE. It’s ridiculously amazing. Obviously, I’m going to leave plans on how to cope when I’m gone and I plan to come back afterwards (I mean barring something exceedingly catastrophic happening with either me or the kid- but at that point, we would have much bigger problems in life), but I just feel like it’s kind of the best thing ever. I mean, obviously not for my employer, but hey. Now that’s not my problem. I don’t run any businesses anymore- I just get to enjoy the perks of being an employee. I’m also hoping that they like me enough anyway and think the tradeoff is worth it so they’re not like…hating me for life or anything. For my own mental sanity, I just assume they think it’s worth it, and move on with life.
3. I love my gynecologist because whenever I message her, she responds within hours. Like seriously. She prevents me from endless Google rabbit holes (which never end well, lets be real). And lets face it, we all know that 90% of my questions are stupid. But she answers them anyway. Also, I can send her my lab tests over Whatsapp and she just looks at them and tells me things are fine. And the one time it wasn’t she was like eh…maybe you have a small infection- just take this for a few days and let me know if it gets better (in case you were wondering: it did).
4. If you have enough money, you can pay for a REALLY nice delivery room. And by “enough money” I mean like…$2k-$3K MAX. FOR THE ENTIRE DELIVERY AND STAY. Although my husband is pushing us to go for a nicer delivery room, I really want my gynecologist to deliver the baby and she only delivers at this one place. I think it’s nice enough. My husband still makes faces, but I get to make the final call since I am the one who is going to be in the world of pain. I still have to check if insurance covers it but even if it doesn’t, it won’t be a big deal. Probably like…$1K ish. DONE DEAL.
5. Again, if you have money, you have people to help you with EVERYTHING. Full-time nanny? No problem. Full-time help? Done. We already have a cook and a cleaner (which is AMAZING) and then when the baby comes we’ll probably just step it up a bit (Because in our house I pretty much do nothing and my husband does everything so he wants someone to help cover his housework so he can be with the baby).

There are probably more reasons, but these were just the ones that came to the top of my head. I’m pretty much living it up. While being knocked up. It’s great.

Originally published at http://anulife.wordpress.com on March 9, 2021.