Bollywood actress Kareena Kapoor Khan doles out pregnancy tips in new book

Bollywood actress and new mother Kareena Kapoor Khan is incredibly proud of surviving and thriving through two pregnancies like a trooper. In her new book, ‘Kareena Kapoor’s Pregnancy Bible’, the glamorous star and mother of two adorable boys — Taimur and Jehangir — gives readers an idea about how she managed to keep her head high during her 40 weeks of gestation and her eventful delivery. She also talks about diet, fitness, her intense morning sickness, and her craving for pepperoni pizza. Here’s what we gleaned from excerpts that have been released for her new book…

Kareena Kapoor Khan claims that her new book is like her third child and she has gone through great pains to keep it real, raw and honest. “It’s a very personal account of what I experienced both physically and emotionally through both my pregnancies … This has been quite the journey… both my pregnancies and writing my Pregnancy Bible. There were good days and bad days; some days I was raring to go to work and others where I struggled to get out of bed,” wrote Kapoor Khan as she introduced her book to the world on her social media account.

Through her book, Kapoor Khan wants to shatter the myth that celebrity pregnancies are glamorous and easy. “I did try and make it look like that when I was out and about! But I didn’t feel that glamorous — who does when they are pregnant? I gained a lot of weight, got pregnancy spots, and was ready to sleep by five every evening! Sounds familiar? In this book, I have been totally honest about everything I went through, from my crazy eating to fainting on a photo shoot out of exhaustion. I hope it will make you smile and comfort you too,” wrote Kapoor Khan.

It’s OK if you are not a perfect mother, claims Kapoor Khan in her new book. She had a simple rule when it came to raising Taimur and Jehangir. “It was simple — to do the best I could and relax. I wasn’t the most perfect mom the first time around. There is joy in messing up. I didn’t know how to clean Taimur’s poop or put on his diaper properly in the beginning. His pee leaked so often because his mother didn’t secure his diaper perfectly. But here is some advice — mother to mother: it’s about you and your comfort; do what is easy and do what works. When a mother is confident and comfortable, the baby senses it too. When a mother is confident and comfortable, the baby senses it too,” wrote Kapoor Khan. She also spoke about how mothers are often burdened by guilt of not doing enough for their newborns. But her tip is simple: just breathe and don’t be hard on ourselves.

Kareena Kapoor Khan reminds all new mothers in her new book that it’s perfectly fine to ask for help. “We women place so much pressure on ourselves — we want to do it all. But everyone needs a little help. Take it. Hold that hand. Whether it’s from family or household help. I would not have been half as functional without the help of my nurse who guided me through Taimur’s time and is now with me for Jeh too. I am deeply grateful for both the women who helped me look after my babies and for the domestic staff who have looked after me and my family all these years,” wrote Kapoor Khan. Her first son Taimur is popular with the Mumbai paparazzi and is often spotted with his nanny during school pick-ups and drop-offs.

Kareena Kapoor Khan claims that during her first pregnancy with Taimur, she was cavalier towards what she ate and did not shirk away from putting on a lot of weight. But she was relatively more careful during her second pregnancy. She was careful about not putting on 25kg and did yoga on a regular basis during her second pregnancy to remain fit and healthy. Yoga has always been a part of her adult life, and even during pregnancy she did not give up the practice of stretching and doing pre-natal yoga. Through her book, Kapoor Khan speaks at length about the importance of remaining in good shape.

Just like every other expectant mother out there, the Bollywood actress also had strange and fierce food cravings throughout her two pregnancies. In her book, she reveals that she craved for pepperoni pizza at all hours, but was careful about over-indulging on it. “I wasn’t all pizza through the nine months and did also try and eat as well as possible. When I first began working with my nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar, she got me to start the morning with a banana and I’ve stuck to that… so my dad begins with one banana and five almonds. This has never changed, whether or not I’m pregnant.” She also reveals that her typical breakfast during her pregnancy was either poha (flattened rice) or two idlis. She also ate five small meals throughout the day. During her second pregnancy, she avoided eating out at restaurants. The pandemic and the lockdown also ensured that she had home-made meals for most parts of her pregnancy. For dinner, she usually stuck to fish or chicken with a small helping of brown rice or quinoa.

Kareena Kapoor Khan has made no bones about her second pregnancy being more difficult than her first. In a chat with producer and friend Karan Johar as she launched her book, Kapoor Khan revealed about how troubling her second pregnancy was: “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’.”

Kareena Kapoor Khan gave a big shout out to her mother-in-law, actress Sharmila Tagore, and her family for encouraging her to work during both her pregnancies. During her book promotion tour, she revealed that Tagore was always ready to support her. She said: “My mother-in-law was also among the first to tell me that I had to keep working. Her advice was to do whatever I wanted but with confidence. She did some great work in the movies after her marriage and kids and was a real inspiration. My mother is also a strong role model for me, and she and my father both told me I must keep at it.” Kapoor Khan also wrote in her book that her husband Saif Ali Khan was super-supportive and that he told her that she could do it all.

There’s a lot of pressure on new mothers regarding breast-feeding their children and through her book, Kapoor Khan is refreshingly candid about her struggles around it. “Taimur was an abrupt Caesarean. I literally had no milk for over 14 days. I was completely dry. My mom and my nurse would be hovering by my side, pressing at my boobs and wondering why ‘it’ wasn’t happening.” But her experience with her second child Jeh was relatively better. She had better flow. Like all new mothers, she was ecstatic about breast-feeding him exclusively. “I’ll admit it — breastfeeding him (and doing it exclusively for a few weeks) felt like an achievement!” she wrote. The book is also an earnest account of her experiences as a new mother. She doesn’t gloss over the unsavoury parts about being pregnant and talks about relevant issues such as decreased sex drive, fatigue and mood swings.