MODERN MUM: A mother’s medical super power

The infant-maternal bond is a strong emotional and physical connection that develops between a mother and her child. It’s a miraculous thing that starts from pregnancy through the first postpartum year, heavily driven by the hormone oxytocin.

The bond keeps surprising us through unexplainable events and scientific discovery. It was only a few years ago that scientists discovered that a mother can carry traces of each of her child's DNA for life!

It was only when I conceived my first born that I understood it. The bond with my child started at conception because I knew in that moment what I was getting into. I connected with him from very early on. I knew he was a boy long before the ultrasound tech confirmed it. I knew he was very smart in utero. To date, as he grows and develops his own personality and we bump heads, I can still predict his next move.

Since returning home the last couple of weeks, my children and I have been the favourite mealtime for mosquitoes. My childhood home is surrounded by mango trees and all manner of plants. As a result, mosquitoes are the order of the day.

While my eldest son and I were technically born and raised in this house, my poor 10-month-old baby is new to it and has been on the receiving end of an infinite number of bites. Yes, we do sleep under treated mosquito nets, but these bites often occur during the day.

Since then, I have been bracing myself for one of them being sick. Be it from mosquito bites or from the drastic change in environment.

On Friday morning, I woke up and tried to scoop my baby into my arms to breastfeed him only to be met with a burning forehead. Even when he was teething, my child would have a mild temperature increase. This was a full fever, indicating something serious was bubbling underneath. As the weekend was approaching, I did not want to risk it. Weekends means no contact with paediatricians and having to deal with on-duty general physicians.

I hurried to the hospital and told the doctor this verbatim: “The fever is indicative of something starting and I do not want to be surprised over the weekend. I like to get ahead of things. It could either be malaria from the mosquito bites or something internal from crawling around and putting his hands in his mouth.” We ran the blood tests and everything I had anticipated was what the doctor read from the results.

I couldn't help but make a light-hearted quip about mothers being doctors. We not only come with a list of all symptoms the baby exhibits but we can presume what the diagnosis is. I remember hearing that doctors love treating kids who are brought in by their mothers because the mothers know every single answer to any question a doctor has, right down to speculations and observations.

At this rate, I find myself proudly continuing the harmless fib of telling my children that I am, in fact, a doctor because I know what’s best.