Kareena Kapoor, mother of two, tells it like it is in her new book, Kareena Kapoor's Pregnancy Bible, in which she's compiled her experiences with pregnancy and parenting. Speaking to filmmaker Karan Johar in an Instagram Live this week, the 40-year-old actress spoke candidly on breastfeeding, the guilt that working mothers feel, and dealing with pregnancy blues. Kareena and husband Saif Ali Khan welcomed their second son, named Jeh, in February this year; their older son Taimur was born in 2016. Both were born via Caesarean section, something that Kareena also covers in her book and discussed in the chat with KJo.
Asked about what advice she had for mothers not able to breastfeed their babies, Kareena Kapoor told Karan Johar, "There's no crown for best mother in the world. Every mother is the best mother in the world. The fact that you've given birth to another human being. If you had the ability and the capability of doing that, then you're the best mother in the world. There's no formula that you have to breastfeed for a certain time." She added that there are situations which new mothers are not able to breastfeed. "Just do the best you can, what works for you at the time," Kareena said.
"Mothers have constant guilt," Kareena Kapoor said - especially working mothers. "They constantly feel if they are at work they are missing out on that one moment... I just want to say that if you're not happy, your child can't be happy. There should never be any guilt about that."
Kareena stressed on no guilt several times in the chat. Asked about whether delivery by C-section leads mothers to feel that they will miss out on a deeper connection with their child, she said, "Everyone wants a normal delivery, no woman wants to cut 35 layers into her body but there are some situations (in which you have to have a C-section). But there can't be guilt, the minute your child is in your arms everything vanishes."
And those pregnancy blues? "They last the entire year," Kareena Kapoor said. It starts in the last trimester with anxiety about what lies ahead, she explained, adding that even now there are "days of fear." Here's how she copes - "When I'm down I think of happier things and happier times, I look at Jeh sleeping and I'm like 'everything is worth it,'" Kareena Kapoor told Karan Johar.
Watch their chat here:
Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan were pictured with baby Jeh today at her father Randhir Kapoor's home in Mumbai.
Kareena Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan with baby Jeh
Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan married in 2012 after dating for several years. Kareena will next be seen opposite her 3 Idiots and Talash co-star Aamir Khan in Laal Singh Chaddha.
