Every year with lady day, we like different honorable callings be it doctor, teacher, supervisor, lady pilot, sportswoman, moms, entertainers, social laborers, engineers, and some more. Moms are no question visionaries who opened the entryway for people in the future, while perceptive that they could never be perceived for what they did in the course of their life.
Today but I would like to write about mothers of children with special needs be it of any category like respiratory disorders, metabolic disorders, oncological conditions, neurological conditions, musculoskeletal impairments, and many more. Daily mothers of such children wake with different hopes ranging from extubation of a two-day-old neonate to successful results of chemotherapy in a 15-year-old child. Being in the outpatient department of pediatric rehabilitation, I call them “Extra Special Women” as they can handle their child’s cry, drooling, aggression, the activity of daily living, medications, and appointments with doctors without getting frustrated.
Whenever I ask them occasionally what they do at home their whole routine of activity revolves around the child from buying various physical therapy expensive equipment like cycling, corner sitting chair, peanut ball to daily doing exercises learned in the therapy session and no doubt the early recovery of their child is also possible because of these “Extra Special Mothers” and often we forget to thanks them for the noble job they are doing.
Today I decided to let’s take a moment to appreciate every special mother whose child is either admitted to hospital due to illness or whose child is dependent on her at home. We understand it is difficult sometimes to answer every question of this society like “why your child is not walking”, “Why your child is having abnormal breathing pattern”, “Why your child is having no hairs and is getting lean day by day”, “Why your child has syndromic presentation”, “Why didn’t you took folic acid in pregnancy”, and many other stupidities.
For you “extra special mothers”, it is crucial to take care of your health too as for a healthy child, the mother also needs to be healthy too. To avoid the stress of society, I as a physical therapist suggest you to daily do exercise in the morning to strengthen your extremities as for the needs of your child you need to be strong, daily using Jacobson relaxation techniques can help prevent hyperventilation anxieties concerning society, alternate nostril breathing your nervous system and less stress response and activity over time, and most importantly to add gynecological rehabilitation for regulation of reproductive hormones, and for helping women rehabilitate their pelvic floor muscles. These muscles can be weakened by childbirth, surgery, heavy lifting, being overweight, constipation or menopause.
Feel free to contact on my email id nida.rizvi@hotmail.com for any concern regarding your health and your child health. Don’t forget to follow this regime.
Thanks.
Dr. Nida Rizvi and Dr. Deeksha Singh co-authored this piece for international women’s health day. Dr. Nida Rizvi is a physical therapist based out of Karachi, Pakistan and Dr. Deeksha Singh is an obstetrics-gynecology physical therapist based out of Hormonalwings, India.