CHENNAI: Bengaluru-based Vaibhav Dewan was ecstatic when his son was born, but that happiness was laced with worry and anxiety upon learning that his newborn would have to spend some days in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). It was in the long corridors of the waiting area outside the NICU that Dewan noticed the plight of other dads.
“After a child is born, everyone asks how the mother and little one are doing. No one really asks a father,” says Dewan, who then decided to document his journey as a father.
Some months later, the Baapbeeti, A Pregnant Papa podcast was born a true lockdown baby with its first episode airing on May 1, 2020. Now, after a brief hiatus due to the lockdown, Dewan resumed season 2 which started earlier this year – with a new episode on Father’s Day (Sunday).
While season 1 was all about planning to have a baby and the journey till delivery, season 2, spread over six episodes, covers the six days Dewan’s son Swabhaav Giridhar Dewan spent in the NICU and the journey from hospital to home.
Though filled with nuggets of Dewan’s experience coping with this, the episodes also offer takeaways for listeners through snippets from doctors like gynaecologist Dr Prakash Kini and other pre and post-natal experts.
“We also bust myths on the podcast. For example, people think the position of the tummy can indicate the sex of the child. We discuss these common tales and I also offer some practical tips for dads,” says 34-year-old Dewan, whose episodes are produced by Rishi Vinod. Bite-sized and succinct, each episode wraps up in under 15 minutes.
The making, however, runs into 8-9 hours. Halfway through season 2, Dewan is already chalking out season 3, which will focus on the first year of bringing up a baby.
“It will also talk about our journey since we had to do all of it during a pandemic,” he says.
If there’s one feeling Dewan associates most with his project, it’s pride. “Sometimes, when my wife, Swati Giridhar, asks my dad about what happened at the time of my birth, his memories are faint. But I’m proud that I’ve documented my son’s journey,” he says. And this will be an ever-evolving task. “I’m sure his adolescent years will come with their own teething troubles.
Who knows, maybe we’ll have future episodes on the first time he comes home drunk or when I come to know he has a girlfriend,” laughs Dewan. He, however, doesn’t plan on ever telling his son about this podcast. The hope is he stumbles upon it himself.
“If he doesn’t maybe I’ll tell him before I pass on. My son may not get some great inheritance, but he will always have these precious memories,” says Dewan. The podcast is available on Spotify and Google Podcasts.