Warangal health psychologist on mission to allay fears on premature babies
Meet 29-year-old Teena Dayal, a health psychologist from Warangal, who has given a new perspective to parents of premature babies to look at the positive side of the situation.
Warangal: Even as the very word ‘premature baby’, scares many due to different reasons including the myths attached to it, the young mother of a preterm baby has started a YouTube channel called “Mom Dad Olive” to create awareness and break the stereotypes attached to preterm babies.
Her daughter Olive was born at 30 weeks with a weight of 1.27 kg on September 4, 2020. In her channel launched on December 5, 2020, she talks about various concerns that parents of preterm babies have, such as weight gain, milestones, feeding, sleeping position, growth and development and so on. The channel has now turned into a beacon of hope for many families across the globe. People from around 92 countries have been motivated and encouraged by her journey and her positivity. One of her videos has received a massive 26 million views where the tiny little Olive is seen playing with her dad.
Meet 29-year-old Teena Dayal, a health psychologist from Warangal, who has given a new perspective to parents of premature babies to look at the positive side of the situation. “It breaks my heart when parents of premature babies cry that their babies are weak and that they can never be on par with term babies. In fact, they are incredibly smart, intelligent, quick learners and very strong. They are far ahead than their peer group,” she says.
Teena also addresses certain mental health issues like postpartum depression, being a confident mum, holistic development of children in her YouTube channel. “I encourage parents to be strong, happy and confident to raise a strong, happy and confident baby.” she said. Many reputed paediatricians were invited to her channel to talk about ongoing issues on preterm babies and IUGR babies on how to take care of them.
Apart from all this, she also documents her daughter Olive’s life as vlogs in her channel to encourage mothers of premature babies not to lose hope. “I receive many messages saying they wish one day they could see their baby as playful and happy as Olive. I reply saying they will get to that day soon, keep up the courage and move forward. Every child deserves to be happy, healthy and nurtured.” Olive’s milestones, growth and development, learning skills, social skills, vaccinations, weight and height charts and many more details are discussed in her YouTube channel.
Besides, she has also written a book “Mommy, I am here, but a little early” where she shared her pregnancy journey, journey of motherhood, valuable tips on weight gain of preterm babies, feeding, bedding, Kangaroo Mother Care, signs of emergency in premature babies, tips for mothers and several other important topics related to premature babies. It is available on Amazon, Flipkart and Notion press.
“My desire is to make the world understand that premature babies are not weak but they are blessed ‘super kids’ who can do wonders. My family including my parents Deen Dayal and Kamala Dayal- and my husband Kalyankar Vikas have been very supportive all this while. The biggest support was that of my sister, Dr Preethi Dayal, a gynaecologist, and my brother- in –law, Dr Nishanth Kumar, a urologist, as they guided me on the important measures to take while caring for a preterm baby,” she concludes.
