Kareena Kapoor Khan's second son Jeh was born on February 21. (Photo: Kareena Kapoor/Instagram) Kareena Kapoor Khan on Monday in a conversation with director and best friend Karan Johar opened up about the difficulties she faced at the time of her second pregnancy and the insecurities it left her with as a woman.
Kareena welcomed her second child, Jeh Ali Khan, on February 21. The actor has penned her experience of being a mother to two kids (Taimur is her older son) in a book titled Kareena Kapoor Khan’s Pregnancy Bible.
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Kareena Kapoor Khan launched the book in an interactive session with Karan Johar on Instagram. When asked how she responded to the physical changes in her body and if they made her insecure about her appearance, Kareena admitted that she had her share of vulnerable moments when she feared “if I was ever going to be okay.”
“I have had those moments, especially with my second pregnancy. When I came back from the hospital and looked at myself in the mirror, I thought I don’t know if I am ever going to be okay. Being an actor, there is a part of you–it is not vanity, it is about wanting to feel, ‘Okay fine, I am fit and I can be back again on my toes.’
“I thought I will never be able to. There was fear of breast feeding because I wasn’t getting enough when I delivered Jeh. There was a lot of mental distress I was going through at that time. I felt my body had stretched, my feet were feeling like 100 kgs,” Kareena said.
The Good Newwz star said that the first few days post delivery pass by in daze and when a woman finally gets some alone time, she comes face-to-face with her deepest fears regarding the big development in her life.
“After you deliver, for the first 15-20 days, you are delirious. There is just so much pressure. When you get a moment alone in the bathroom and look at yourself, you just think, ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen.’ As time goes on, with love and support, it gets better.”
Kareena Kapoor Khan emphasised on the importance of providing extra attention to a woman post her delivery. “After delivery, everyone is obviously focused on the child, but I feel the most important person is the mother. She needs the most support, which people tend to forget,” she said.
The actor added she was quite distressed while being pregnant with Jeh, and her agony was aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic.
“This pregnancy was extremely difficult compared to Taimur’s, which was a breeze. I had loved it, enjoyed it and that gave me the courage to do it again. But this was different. I had bouts where I would sit down and think, ‘I don’t think I can do this, don’t think anything is going to be okay.’
“It was (also) Covid times. With all safety protocols, we managed to do a lot of shoots. It kept me alive, happy in times that were so difficult. There was this constant fear of what is going to happen, what if I get Covid, my child gets it. There was a lot of trauma in the last trimester mentally, of wanting to step out and do things but still…,” Kareena said.
The actor recalled how the fear of carrying Jeh back home from the hospital post delivery had overwhelmed her.
“The second time when I delivered, I was worried that i was going to the hospital. It was the peak of Covid and I was constantly hearing so many stories. Just that worry of carrying him out of hospital for the first time was overwhelming.”
On the work front, Kareena Kapoor Khan will be next seen in Aamir Khan-starrer Laal Singh Chaddha, which is set to arrive in theatres this Christmas.
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