Hidden Costs of Births in India

It has almost been 2 weeks since Asha joined us. Overall, it has been great! She is generally a very polite, relaxed kid. She seems to have a similar temperament to Shane...but only time will tell. She's starting to sleep for longer periods which will hopefully allow us to catch up on sleep.

But within hours of her delivery, I began to spend lots of money due to Indian culture and tradition. It was fun and I wanted to document this for posterity.

At most hospitals in India, the staff (nurses, cleaning staff, security guards, etc.) ask for tips -- either blatently or subtily. However, our hospital, has trained their staff not to ask for tips. We decided to give a large gift (about 10% of the overall bill) to their employees' benevolence fund. And I did give the valet parking attendent Rs. 10 ($0.25).

The next day I bought about 11 kg. (24 lbs!!) of candy to distribute to colleagues, neighbors, friends, local businesses, etc. This cost about $100. But in terms of income for the average Indian, it was a full month's salary. And it almost broke some bones since I carried it home on my motorcycle in two bags hanging from my wrists. It also took a lot of time. I personally handed the sweets (they're milk-based candy with nuts/fruit mixed in) to at least 140 people over the next three days. Another 40 people received sweets via some helpers.

And, besides showing a picture of the baby, everyone wanted to know: the weight (they don't care about length! and the avg weight here is 2.6kg...Asha was 3.7kg) and if it was a "normal" delivery (i.e. not a c-section, which many doctors push ladies to have; it takes less time and costs a third more than natural delivery). Then, when I shared that we've already "fixed a name", some were shocked since babies usually don't get a name for a couple of weeks. That gives the family time to consults the stars (or Christians will pray) and make a group decision. We're a little strange and different...but people were thrilled to hear we chose an Indian name!

Welcome to baby Asha

Our baby girl was born on Sat. night, Feb. 13, at 11:10pm here in Hyderabad. Her name is Asha Judith Spotts, and she was 8lbs 2oz and about 19 inches long. We have lots to be thankful for…a quick drive across town (20 min, instead of the normal 45 min), a normal delivery, our doctor arrived at the hospital 15 before the birth, and much more.

Asha (ahhh-shaw) means hope or wish in Hindi…and in some African languages we’re told it means light. And Judith was my mom's name. As most of you know, she died in June 2000, but we wanted to honor her legacy.

We’re home and Libby and Asha are doing well. We’re grateful to have Libby’s mom here to help out. Our two boys, Shane (3 yrs) and Lukas (17 months) have realized (mostly) what is happening. Shane has been particularly tender...wanted to give his baby sister new toys, take her outside to use his toy saw on some wood, read her books, etc. Lukas is still very suspicious of the little pink blanket that occasionally makes funny sounds. Very fun!