Can I touch your hair?

June 2, 2015

I walked in on a lady giving birth today. It was interesting experience. Instead of telling me to leave the doctor and nurse welcome me to stay and watched, which was unexpected. I have never experienced a birth occur before, so I enjoyed watching the process it was amazing. I’m surprise that I didn’t faint, instead I found myself slowly creeping forward to see the action. Unfortunately, this birth didn’t end well.

 I also got the opportunity to meet the Naturopathic doctor. She uses holistic practices to help infertile women to reduce stress level or reduce weight in order to increase their chances of conceiving a child. It’s interesting how in India after one year of marriage and you don’t produce and child you are considered infertile, and being infertile is a bad thing here. Marriages will be torn apart if a women is infertile which is odd from my point of view but I understand that it is the way their culture works. The naturopathic doctor also had a patient in her office practicing breathing exercise in order to help reduce stress and tension during the actual birth. I was amazed with the Naturopathic doctor because I’ve never heard of one prior to coming to Janet. It was fun experience and I’m happy that I got the chance to meet her.

The rest of the day was uneventful, I watch Dr. Victoria perform multiple ultrasound scans and inspect multiple vaginas. Sometimes something interesting would pop up and Dr. Victoria would explain it to me. For example, this one woman had a tumor in her uterus which is called a fibroid and apparently it’s common with many patients that are ages 34 and older. However, while I was finding my whole experience at Janet interesting the staff was finding my hair to be more interesting. They couldn’t understand how African American female’s hair works when it comes to braiding even though I tried to explain. They were amazed with how long it took to do my hair and they were very interested in how I was able to maintain it. All day I was bombarded with questions about my hair and everyone wanted to feel my hair. I don’t like people touching my hair so I usually don’t let people touch my hair. However, I am now immune to random strangers touching my hair. Being in India is changing me, but I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or bad thing.

Day 3 in Trichy and I’m ready to change my hairstyle.