Disclaimer: I have no special interest towards any particular search engines. However, you will find me mentioning the name Google here. I am still googling to find out the cause.
She twisted and rolled a pen and occasionally thumped it onto the table. Her eyes were fixed onto mine and all ears for me. Then, I muttered, “Preeclampsia” (A serious condition in pregnancy characterized by high blood pressure and fluid retention.). A smile broke into her lips, but she maintained eye contact. There was a deep sigh of relief from my husband who was seated next to me. It seemed like they were trying to prove something and just won. Tension in the room was relieved and he said, “Doctor, as soon as any symptom appears she googles and diagnosis it herself!” She then took my blood pressure and asked to do a routine urine analysis to rule out pre eclampsia! My husband laughed at me and said “She wants you to do this, so that you can have peace of mind!” This time doctor broke her silence and took that fated pen again and said, “No, I really want to rule it out However, relax and take complete rest. No laptop or TV for you for next 24 hours.”
Being an IT professional and staying away from hometown and from the advices of mother and warnings from mother in –law, what is so abnormal about googling and keeping up to-date about one’s pregnancy? Though pregnancy is a totally normal phenomenon which can make any normal individual insane with numerous symptoms, advices from every nook and corner, and a puffed up face. I decided to adopt Google as my God Mother as soon as I was planning to become a mother. My own mother and other women folks in the family were out of picture and were considered only for pampering me. I was enthralled at the sight of thousands of sites dedicated for baby making, pregnancy detection kit, etc. A close friend of mine had ordered a dozen of these kits and by the time she got pregnant, she could actually write a paper on the efficiency of various brands in detecting early pregnancy! Planning and preparing is important, but it also makes you weaker to face the unexpected. After reading various online forums and sites I had a clear picture of symptoms related to pregnancy, usage of detection kit, conception chances, routine tests, etc. Whenever my lack of experience confused me, my doctor who is an extremely patient and quick witted lady would first prompt me to utter the medical terms and then explains it to me.
My mother’s generation hardly had any such funky tools to look for information. She relied on doctors or health magazines or experienced relatives. It was also a networking activity which resulted in the establishment of support groups. Women of that era relied on doctors and did not have any pre-judgment about symptoms. On the contrary, availability of millions of resources and advancement in technology is now capable of viewing any normal situation abnormally. Recently a health camp was conducted at my firm and practitioners were sent to a dietician. Needless to say some of my colleagues instantly googled to validate what he had to say and bombarded him with questions. The other day, a set of inquisitive people were discussing the difference between purple, violet, lilac, and lavender. This is not because they are jobless, but this is the trend!
Car’s engine got started and a song started playing ,
‘♫ Que Sera, Sera, Whatever will be, will be. The future's not ours, to see ♫’. We left the clinic. I realized that being inquisitive is good, but it shouldn’t lead to anxiety and stress. We have knowledge at our finger tips and it doesn’t mean that we should be knowledgeable about everything. Be it pregnancy or on anything in this universe, realization on where to stop is important. I started imagining the endless possibilities of doubts I will have till delivery and beyond and the millions of search results … Thump! My baby kicked, maybe she wants to tell that, we should simply live the moment!
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