Interview with Our Mom- Part 1

Menstrual health is a topic that should be talked about, especially by parents, because they have the responsibility to prepare their children for what they can experience in their first period. But growing up in a culture wherein menstrual health is not taught, parents who grow up in this culture have difficulty talking about it to their children, passing the curse over and over again from generation to generation.

Utpat Sisters share their mother's perspective on how she managed her menstrual health during her childhood and why she didn’t teach her child about it. Mothers should be the ones to first talk about menstrual health with their girls. Unfortunately, those who grow up in a culture where menstrual health is not talked about have difficulty discussing it with their children. Listen and watch as the Utpat Sisters talk to their mother about menstrual health. Stay tuned to learn more!

Quotes:

“Maybe I did never plan to talk to you about menstrual health. Because I myself never had that experience. My mother never talked to me about it. And not that it was her fault. Her mother probably never talked to her about it also. So this probably has been going on for generations that the mothers don't talk to their daughters about the advent of such a thing.” – Utpat Sisters Mother

“Probably we picked up that something happens to the girls, and the girls go through something around that time. But what happens to them, and what are they supposed to do about it, was something you'd never found out. It's a toss of a coin, literally, that it doesn't happen to you when you're at school or on the bus. And that it happens to you at home where someone discovers it and helps you out.” – Utpat Sisters Mother

“I learned so much about what it was like on the other side of the world. And I'm sure that this actually still occurs in nations around the world, but it was just it gave us real insight because we would have never learned it otherwise, you know, being born in the USA.. ”– Utpat Sisters

Takeaways:

Utpat Sister's Mother did not talk to them about menstrual health. But this is because mothers don’t talk about it openly due to their culture.

Since it was never discussed in their culture, the information about the menstrual cycle lies on their instinct as women and that they should figure it out themselves.

Being born in the United States of America, the Utpat Sisters don’t know that much about India. Therefore, they are glad for their mother to share her insights about this topic.

Conclusion:

Because of the culture she grew up in, Utpat Sister's mother overlooked teaching them about menstrual health. To break this culture, regardless of one's origins, openly discussing menstruation health should be done in order to prepare young girls for their first period and make others aware of the importance of it.