A Silent Prayer

This one is a guest post by Dr Angeline Zachariah, my better half. Trained as a Clinical Pathologist (DCP, 2008 Batch, Christian Medical College, Vellore), she is a big help in outpatient department and the Laboratory. Angel, as she is popularly  known, belongs to the MBBS Batch of 2000, of Medical College, Trivandrum. 

It has been quite some time since I've been praying for MD. She has been coming regularly for ante-natal care since the last 2 months. 

Today she came about 1 week past her expected date of delivery. And we have induced her. 

The reason for my prayers . . . 

MD has been married for about 7 years. She has 2 children . . . both girls. 

When MD first visited us for ANC, she told her story. It was with much difficulty that her in-laws agreed to let her visit a hospital for antenatal care. Her husband was also not interested. The obvious reasons . . . her 2 pregnancies have resulted in 2 girls. 

She narrated how her husband had refused to see the first born when he came to know that the baby was a girl. It was when one of our nurses told him to leave the baby in the hospital that he took a peek at the baby. 

In fact, it was her brothers who forcibly brought her for antenatal care and now, for the hospital delivery. When they went to bring her to her mother's home, she was bluntly told by her husband to not return to him if the third baby was also a girl. 

However, there was something that encouraged me. She told me that she was determined to educate her daughters now that she has seen me . . . a lady doctor. 

As I talked to her every time she came for antenatal care, I realised that this lady is in the danger of being abandoned by her husband. It is not uncommon that we see wives being abandoned just because they could not deliver a male progeny. I could not help but pray that she has a boy baby. 

When I returned home, I wondered if it was right for me to pray that she has a baby boy . . . or should I fervently pray for a change in heart of the husband and the in-laws? And of course a change of heart of the communities/societies we are in.