Recently when Radhika Gupta, managing director and chief executive officer at Edelweiss Mutual Fund, gave an interview where she said she was building a Rs 10-crore corpus for her son’s education, it raised a mini furore on social media. Tweeps suggested cheaper colleges she could send her son to instead, the merits and demerits of foreign education or just raising questions on her math! As for me? At five months pregnant, I will worry about crossing that bridge a little later. Because I am still wallowing in just how much money people today can throw around even on a pregnancy, let alone post the baby’s birth.
Get this, last week I went for an NIPT test that cost Rs 30,000. What’s an NIPT? It stands for Non-Invasive Pre natal Test and involves a blood test to detect congenital abnormalities (like Down Syndrome) in the fetus. Basis my still limited understanding, it can’t even tell you if a condition exists or not. It merely tells you how likely it is that a condition exists. Worth shelling out as much? I think I am still divided.
Onto this weekend, when I am all set to attend my first pre natal yoga class, with the package up until month nine costing a cool quarter of a lakh. These, apart from monthly sonographies, doctor appointments, supplement bills and so on.
But, leaving aside the money, for those interested in going above and beyond, there is an unending list of what else you can spend even time on—prenatal classical music classes anyone? Pregnancy pilates maybe? If that’s also too basic, then hypnobirthing classes might be your thing (which apparently involve self hypnosis to help birthing individuals manage pain and anxiety).
As for me, the recent days have been about soaking in the journey’s little pleasures—feeling the first kicks while sipping on my coffee while I willfully ignore the occasional dirty looks I get for my absolute refusal to give up on that daily cup (or two).
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