Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Before the First Breath: The Memoirs of A Newborn
    Before the First Breath: The Memoirs of A Newborn
    Before the First Breath: The Memoirs of A Newborn
    Ebook195 pages1 hour

    Before the First Breath: The Memoirs of A Newborn

    By Debmita Dutta

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    ‘Before the First Breath – The Memoirs of A Newborn’ is the amazing story of how a single cell turns into a complete human being. It is the story of a journey that begins in the Ovary and ends in the world outside. The story is a first person account of all that happens from the time, the narrator comes into being – at which time she is an obscure single cell with a miniscule amount of cytoplasm in the Left Ovary - to the time when she emerges into the world outside - a complete human being - and takes in her first breath of air.

    Transport yourself to the amazing world of baby making. Experience - first hand - all that happens as a single cell turns into a beautiful baby - as the happenings are related by the just born baby who has a penchant for humor and for explaining complex medical concepts in a lucid manner.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDebmita Dutta
    Release dateJan 1, 2015
    ISBN9781310852145
    Before the First Breath: The Memoirs of A Newborn
    Author

    Debmita Dutta

    Dr Debmita Dutta MBBS MD is a Parenting and Wellness Consultant practicing in Bangalore, where she runs a clinic called "The Parenting Place". She hand holds parents through their Parenting journey right from the time they conceive their baby up until their children leave their teens. She consults with and conducts workshops for parents of children in all age groups - infants, toddlers, pre-schoolers, school age children, tweens and teens. She is passionate about explaining complicated medical concepts to people with no medical background - using fun examples from everyday life while dispensing with the use of mindboggling Medical Terminology. Dr Dutta can be reached at debmita.dutta@gmail.com

    Read more from Debmita Dutta

    Related to Before the First Breath

    Related ebooks

    Women's Health For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Lucy Peach Is A Period Queen

      Nov 5, 2020

      Lucy Peach Is A Period Queen
      20 min read

    • Article

      The Ecstasy And The Agony Of Being A Grandmother By Robin Marantz Henig

      Mar 4, 2021

      I was in the delivery room when my first grandchild was born. It was a gift from my daughter to be invited in at all–I know I can be overbearing sometimes–and I cherished the invitation like a rare and precious gem. During the long night of my daught

      5 min read

    • Article

      A Space for Life to Grow

      May 17, 2021

      A Space for Life to Grow
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Good With The Bad

      Jan 8, 2021

      The Good With The Bad
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Good With The Bad

      Jan 8, 2021

      The Good With The Bad
      9 min read

    • Article

      Angela Scanlon

      May 16, 2022

      Angela Scanlon
      5 min read

    • Article

      (not Always) Smooth Sailing!

      Oct 1, 2020

      (not Always) Smooth Sailing!
      9 min read

    • Article

      Honest Reflections

      Nov 1, 2018

      A week after I found out my wife was pregnant, I realised I was going through a hyper-accelerated version of the seven stages of grief. Shock? Check. Depression? Check. Miscellaneous crying jags? Very much check. At one point, my wife asked me whethe

      7 min read

    • Article

      Exhaling

      Dec 7, 2021

      Around me are fifty or so men, in whose company I will sit and be silent for ten days. I eye them discreetly, wondering who among them is going through a crisis. Who, like me, has a family. Who’s single, who’s been dumped, who’s poor or unhappy. Who’

      52 min read

    • Article

      Baby Steps

      May 14, 2021

      Baby Steps
      8 min read

    • Article

      Baby Steps

      May 14, 2021

      Baby Steps
      8 min read

    • Article

      A CLOSER LOOK AT Being a Fox

      Nov 1, 2017

      A CLOSER LOOK AT Being a Fox
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Power Of Female Form

      Aug 1, 2022

      The Power Of Female Form
      13 min read

    • Article

      Double Trouble

      Dec 2, 2021

      Leading side to side and stretching my body ready for my dance show I couldn’t wait to get going. I was 13 at the time and I spent as much time as I possibly could swirling and leaping around. Dance was my passion – in particular Modern and ballet. I

      4 min read

    • Article

      We’ve Got This.

      Sep 1, 2022

      We’ve Got This.
      12 min read

    • Article

      Lean In To Love

      Dec 28, 2021

      Lean In To Love
      13 min read

    • Article

      Free As A Bird

      Jan 25, 2024

      Free As A Bird
      5 min read

    • Article

      Beat It!

      Feb 24, 2022

      Beat It!
      5 min read

    • Article

      Beating Baby Blues

      Dec 7, 2021

      Beating Baby Blues
      7 min read

    • Article

      Behind The Scenes

      Sep 3, 2020

      Behind The Scenes
      5 min read

    • Article

      Where The Wild Things Are.

      Sep 3, 2020

      Where The Wild Things Are.
      12 min read

    • Article

      My story For Isaac

      Aug 11, 2021

      One of the first things I noticed after the death of Isaac was the silence. The past two years had been filled with laughter, music and the occasional tantrum. Then all of a sudden, it was just so quiet ... Isaac was the youngest victim of the Beirut

      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Before the First Breath

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Before the First Breath - Debmita Dutta

      Introduction

      Dear Mom,

      I love this pink blanket. It is warm and cosy and it feels wonderful after my two hundred and eighty day long swim underwater.

      I love it when you hold me close in it and smile down at me. I can see the pride and happiness in your eyes.

      This is all I’ve dreamt of ever since I was a lonely anonymous single cell in an obscure corner of your Left Ovary.

      You keep saying that you can’t believe that I am finally here and I can’t tell you what an adventure it was to get here. Several times I thought I wouldn’t make it, but I did and here I am.

      It is funny when I hear people all around me saying that I am just a day old - because in many ways actually, I am just as old as you are. As a fully formed human being yes – this is my first day breathing air on the earth, but as a single cell I began my journey many years ago – when you were a Foetus inside your Mom.

      This is my story.............

      Chapter 1

      My neglected childhood as a single cell

      I was born into a very large family. We were close to a thousand siblings and we lived tightly packed in a house called the Germinal Epithelium. It was a nice house in a quiet and pleasant neighbourhood called the Ovary.  Even though our neighbourhood the Ovary was located at the bottom of a very busy district called the Abdomen, it was usually devoid of the chaos that prevailed in the other parts of that district.

       Of course it did get noisy at times. The neighbours were not exactly quiet you see.

      Sketch_03

      My noisy neighbours.

      There was the colon in our immediate neighbourhood. We woke up every morning to the tune of its loud groans. There was absolutely no peace until it emptied itself into the toilet bowl.

      The stomach was some distance away, but always vociferous in his complains. He grumbled and whined in his loud voice all day long. Every four hours he began his growling because he was hungry.

      I’m hungry! I’m hungry! He went.

      Then when he was fed, he started his crazy dance and wriggled and wriggled until he had pushed all the food out. And then he would begin crying for food again.

      Sketch_01

      My neighbourhood the Ovary - at the end of the Fallopian Avenue.

      Our neighbourhood - the Ovary however, usually remained peaceful because it was located at the end of a long shady avenue called the Fallopian Avenue. The Fallopian Avenue started at a huge auditorium called the Uterus and ended at the Ovary, where we lived. As children we often dreamt of gliding down that avenue and entering the Uterus to be in the midst of things. But of course that didn’t happen.

      We were born without much fanfare.

      No drum roll greeted us when we came into being, because we came into being even before you were born.

      Yes Mom! You were just a 10 week old foetus in your Mom’s womb when I first came into being!

      There wasn’t too much of me at that time. I was just a tiny little cell among a thousand others in the Ovary.

      As a new cell in a new organ in your body at that time, I was desperate to be noticed – and I was not alone in my ambition. All the other cells in all the other spanking new organs in your body were just as eager to be seen and exclaimed over as me.

      Our first chance to parade ourselves came when your Mom underwent an Ultrasonography. That day, every organ in every cell inside your Foetal body vied with the other to be caught in the beam of the ultrasound and be noticed. In the Ovary we struggled to be seen too.

      But no one was looking for the Ovary!

      There was a great deal of oooohing and aaaahing when your beating heart was seen. Your incomplete arms and legs were exclaimed about incessantly as well.

      But no one paid any attention to our large family in the Ovary.

      I was more than a little disappointed at being disregarded like that.

      Admittedly I was small. Even en masse with all my siblings in the Ovary I was almost invisible.  And I didn’t kick you like the legs did. But I still thought I deserved some credit for being so good and quiet.

      But that didn’t happen.

      I was overlooked and disregarded.

      To add injury to insult, I wasn’t even given a separate name. I was just clubbed together with all my other siblings, and nonchalantly referred to as the Cells of the Germinal Epithelium.

      No one noticed me, or my siblings even after you were born.

      The Ovary just wasn’t an organ of importance then!

      In our corner of the abdomen - we had neglected childhood.

      None of us enjoyed being passed over, but we tried to make the best of it.

      Fortunately, there were so many of us cells in the same age group and we lived so tightly packed together in that tiny house, that what we lacked in attention, we made up for, in a one of a kind camaraderie. We couldn’t move, so it did get boring at times, but occasional graduation ceremonies came around to elevate our moods and we made the best of these rituals.

      Soon after we were born and even before you yourself were born, we proudly graduated. From being called Cells - we acquired the distinction of being called the Primordial follicles and then we acquired the title Primary follicles.

      Sketch_02

      We graduated and grew – and had the same dream.

      It felt good to be given better and better titles, even if we were still not given different names.

      Despite all my grumbling about being left out of the lime light however, I often thanked my lucky stars I was not a hand or a leg. You had an extremely busy childhood and your hands and legs were in a pitiable state once you learnt how to move. They were constantly on the go and never got to nap. Even when you slept they were expected to be on duty. And of course when you were awake they were in a state of frenzied activity. Not to mention the number of times they got injured in the bargain. Gone were their days of extending at will and kicking your Mom’s abdomen as they had done when you were a Foetus. You went to School, to Birthday parties and to play dates – and they never had a minute’s peace.

      I was addicted to my little snoozes, and when I saw their plight - I chuckled as I napped.

      Of course I did get agitated at times.  The frequent napping that us siblings were indulging ourselves with, was threatening to turn permanent. I sometimes felt like I was hibernating! Nothing was happening! We were not even a part of your passing thoughts. You didn’t even know that we existed!

      There was little point in getting agitated though, and so I learnt to calm down. Because when I was calm I turned dreamy and I nursed my beautiful dream.

      I had only one dream. I dreamt of being the focus of your attention.

      I wanted to be the most important thing in your life.

      I dreamt of a time when I would be more important to you than all the other organs in the body. I visualized a time when I would be in the limelight and have the focus of all your attention. I fancied I was the tortoise and I dreamt of overtaking all these rabbits in the race one day.

      I never shared my dreams with anyone because I wasn’t the gregarious type as a single cell. So I was a shocked one day when I overheard a conversation between a hundred odd siblings of mine.

      They were animatedly discussing my dream!

      I listened closely and I was shattered. Every one of my siblings nursed the same dream. My dream!

      Well, what could I have expected? Identical siblings couldn’t have different dreams.

      So I began listening in on conversations. From the scraps of information that came my way, I pieced together a story. I discovered that there was a way to realize my dream.

      On the grapevine came the information - that one day the luckiest and healthiest amongst us Follicles in the Ovary would be able to take turns at squeezing our way out of the Ovary. We would be propelled by invisible fingers into the Fallopian Avenue. And there, we would have a chance to meet our Prince Charmings reverently called the Sperms. That would be the make or break event. If we met him, we would metamorphose from anonymous Follicles into Real People.

      And we would then be ‘All Important’ to you.   

      Chapter 2

      My turbulent teens

      When I look back at my childhood I have to admit that it was a tranquil phase compared to my anxiety ridden teens.

      In the first eleven years that I spent as

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1