Gramin Vikas Sansthan

In village Shivli, when VHW Kanchanlata's son was born 11 years ago she was living with her mother-in-law and her grand mother-in-law. The old lady was very strict with Kanchanlata and imposed her beliefs on her.

Kanchanlata's family is quite affluent. There was never any dearth of milk, yogurt or buttermilk as there were always two or three buffaloes that gave milk. But the sad part was that Kanchanlata was not allowed to have any of it when she was pregnant. Her husband's grandmother, who ruled the household, believed, like people of her generation, that if a pregnant woman had milk or yogurt, the foetus would get stuck to the womb and it would become difficult or impossible to deliver the baby.

This matriarch would not even allow Kanchanlata to eat more than once a day. "The foetus will become fat and you will die," she would scream. Unable to bear hunger, Kanchanlata would often steal into the kitchen and have a bite. When found out she would get scolded. Then the grandmother began to follow her around to prevent her from eating extra.

As the pregnancy advanced Kanchanlata became very weak. She could barely stand up without support. With great difficulty and after much persuasion, Kanchanlata was allowed to take the two tetanus toxoid vaccines. Kanchanlata went to her parental home to have the child. Quite expectedly it was born very weak. On the third day, its condition became serious and had to be rushed to Lucknow, 50 kilometers away, for proper medical attention. The child somehow survived.

For a long time after that Kanchanlata and her husband decided not to have any more children. Nine years later they had their second child. By now the circumstances were vastly different. The matriarch was no more. Kanchanlata too was a different person now. She already had five years' experience working as a health worker in the SMCS program.

She followed every instruction in the book this time. She did not want to repeat the trauma of having her first child. Everyday she would carry a small bag with her to work and on her way back in the evening she would buy some vegetable, which included green leaves and fruits. She had milk and yogurt regularly. She got check-ups done three times during her pregnancy. And as soon as the child was born, she started breastfeeding. As a result Kanchanlata has a bonny two-year-old son now.