Milk, bones and myths

Starting this month, Crib Sheet will try to unravel the quiet sacrifices and the extraordinary science that sustain a new life

- By Anuja Susan Varghese

Until that day, all I had seen—and felt—were tiny feet kicking in my belly. She kicked a lot, tangoing with the clatter of my keyboard. But, on June 19, by midday, she stopped playing footsie and finally decided to greet the world. I caught only fragments of hushed talk about a tangled umbilical cord, and panic set in. I saw the doctor reaching for the forceps. She was out—but the cord was wrapped around her neck twice.

For a second, she didn't cry—a silence that stretched into a heart-stopping eternity. Then, a sweet, sharp wail pierced the stillness. I thought the hard part was over. I was wrong.

Despite being a natural marvel, motherhood remains wrapped in mystery, myth and superstition. We glorify it, cloak it in divinity and grace—yet the science that sustains it often remains hidden.

Even in the 21st century, a mother can find herself learning something entirely new from an Instagram reel, despite having grown up surrounded by the idea of motherhood.

A popular myth suggests that once delivery ends, struggle gives way to the serene ease of feeding a newborn. But how many of us know that our mother’s hips and spine may have disintegrated to produce enough calcium-rich milk?

Yes—if a mother does not get enough calcium from her diet, her body treats her skeleton like a calcium bank, withdrawing what it needs to enrich breast milk for the baby.