The first time I actually felt a proper connection/bond with my son (who is now 2.5) was a month post his birth when he actually started to recognize me and I could sense the immense comfort he felt as soon I went close to him. He became my go-to comfort human. From then on, he gives me so many memories to cherish. The way he giggles, calls me 'Amma', runs to me as soon as I open the door after work, the unlimited kisses he plants on my cheek and so many more. 

Words of courage – Though the pregnancy journey did not exactly go as planned and was a little stressful, I still feel blessed that I can call him mine and he is the best I could have asked for.

Humans of Momly

Let us celebrate International Women's Day by reading the courageous stories of our community mothers. These women overcame the challenges that the universe threw at them and emerged as a beacon of hope and strength.

My son is the best thing happened to me

Women entrepreneurs are on the rise. An uptick in mom entrepreneurs and women-owned start-ups in recent years has become a story of success in business and economic growth in the country. As per the study, the current business landscape with women-owned enterprises, which comprised only 20% of all businesses a few years ago, is envisioned to reach a substantial 33 % by 2029-2030. Even though the trend looks optimistic, mom entrepreneurs today face tremendous challenges in the work and house front and struggle to juggle family roles and professional demands.

Some of the headwinds that women in business face today:

The proverbial ‘mom guilt’ – Motherhood guilt is one of the major challenges that hinder growth, push women on a downward spiral and set them up for failure in their venture. Societal expectations and feelings of inadequacy experienced by mothers who are made to believe that they are not doing enough for their child become an albatross around their neck and lead to harmful effects on their mental health.

The impossible work-life balance – Striking the right balance between personal life and professional endeavours poses a major challenge for mompreneurs. The unrealistic expectations and pressure from society, the inadequate support system at home and poor awareness of mothers’ struggles at the workplace get overwhelming and cause mothers to rethink their foray into business and further push them to quit their businesses.

The Gender War – Lack of appropriate opportunities for women entrepreneurs, unhealthy societal conventions that dictate mothers prioritizing the household over work pursuits, and limited access to funding for women entrepreneurs act as major setbacks for aspiring mompreneurs to grow and make it big in the male-dominated business world.

Momly’s Moms in Focus: Celebrating Resilience of Mumma Mias

Fostering a safe, happy, and judgement-free climate for moms is the ongoing purpose of Momly and keeping that as a main motto, Momly collaborated with Femtech in Bangalore and Estate Social in Mumbai with a power-packed theme ‘Moms in Focus’ to celebrate -mompreneurs and their wonderful resilience and never-say-die spirit.

Rising above the Odds: Event Takeaways from Key Speakers

Manvi Gandotra, an Indian writer and speaker, spoke about gender stereotypes and biases, and by fostering open dialogue in many forums, is working on creating more awareness and a supportive environment for mothers.

Chaitanya Kenchammana, founder of Maya Medi Spa, champions women’s health and brings attention to the need of the hour topic – maternal health and making it a more inclusive conversation.

Shalini Sarkar, an Indian author, breaks barriers by demonstrating resilience and perseverance in male-dominated fields. Voicing dissent on the gender divides and making space for women to thrive in the business world is what she believes to do with her work.

Bhagyalakshmi Gohokar surmounted the challenges of being the only woman to lead at the age of 66 in a highly male-dominated industry by envisioning a strong goal to reach her customers with authentic food. By saying that age is never a deterrent, she stands as a beacon of hope for aspiring mompreneurs who want to make a name for themselves and turn their dreams into tangible reality.

Rashmee Gajra of Anmol Baby Carriers started a revolution of babywearing and helped new mothers and fathers go hands-free. She claims that her biggest pillar of support is her family. What started as a personal need became a thriving business that makes space for a sprawling network of moms and dads to come and build their connection with their babies by wearing them.

Strength of moms is not built overnight. Lot of dedication, patience and consistency together make the building blocks. And of course, a village of moms to support and nurture each other’s dreams.

Celebrating Mother’s Day at Momly

Women entrepreneurs are on the rise. An uptick in mom entrepreneurs and women-owned start-ups in recent years has become a story of success in business and economic growth in the country. As per the study, the current business landscape with women-owned enterprises, which comprised only 20% of all businesses a few years ago, is envisioned to reach a substantial 33 % by 2029-2030. Even though the trend looks optimistic, mom entrepreneurs today face tremendous challenges in the work and house front and struggle to juggle family roles and professional demands. 

Momprenuers Today: Floating Above the Pitfalls

Strengthening Connections between Parent-Child

Infant Massage is a touch therapy for babies. Also known as massage therapy, it is crucial form of bonding activity in the early childhood that envelops plethora of benefits in its roof for growing babies. Infant Massage is carried out to improve loving touch and create long-lasting bond/connections between parents and their babies.

Touch is the first sense that is developed in babies. It is also how parents express love for their babies. Babies find comfort through touch and a sense of calm pervades in them. However, it is very important that infant massage should not be rushed but it should be practiced on a case to case basis. In other words, it is best to speak to your healthcare provider before starting a massage routine for your babies.

Three weeks is ideal to wait before introducing infant massage to babies. Babies who have been given massage after 3 weeks are much calmer, less fussier and sleep better than the ones whose massage schedule is started way early. The prime reason to wait till 3 weeks is the cord stump falls off by that time and the belly area of babies is healed.

What can I do in this 3 weeks Period: Tips to Prep your Babies for Massage Routine

Before starting the massage, few things could be exercised to make them prepare for the body massage.

Lot of skin to skin contact by both mothers and fathers

Holding, cuddling, swaddling, cradling and rocking

Recommended massage strokes before infant massage could be back rub, head rub, and belly rub.

Start slowly. Schedule Infant massage for 5 to 15 minutes initially. Increase the duration in gradual phases. For 6 to 12 months, massage duration can go up to 30 minutes. 

Unscented oils – Scented oils can come in the way between mothers/fathers fragrance and babies so it would be counter-productive for improving connection.

Vegetable based oils – Since babies do lot of hand to mouth movements in the initial weeks/months, better to avoid unnatural oils.

Olive oil or other flavoured oils can be avoided because of the viscocity, it would need *more washing rituals to completely get rid off the oils.

Always do a patch test before starting off with any massage oils.

Pour oil in small quantities and do not pour the unused oil of katori back to the container.

Warm and quiet room free of any distractions – Babies get distracted with sounds and wouldn’t cooperate. Too much of auditory stimulus can make babies cranky and irritable.

Light music or calming music can be introduced in the massage routine

Massage Strokes – Pressure, Movement and other handy tips

Never wake up a sleeping baby for massage

Avoid massage when babies are too full or hungry. Minimum gap between feeds and massage should be 30 – 45 mins.

Don’t massage when babies are unwell, have wounds/rashes

Bowlegs will resolve on their own. Massage won’t straighten the legs so firm strokes should be avoided.

Milk on babies’ nipples should not be squeezed in the name of massage to squirt out the milk. It will resolve on their own in time.

No need of massage around the genital area and soft spots on their head etc

Don’t force a massage in older babies if they don’t’ want it. Understand baby’s cues and respect them.

Massage is a traditional practice that is followed across cultures. It fosters a climate of connection and positivity in babies, and helps in generating love and warmth in parents. Mothers who are struggling with PPD (Postpartum Depression) when started massaging their babies saw a steady increase in their mood and decline in emotional outbursts.

Are you a new mom who is planning to introduce massage in your baby’s routine? Do you wish to know more about infant massage and know the right strokes from expert? Book a session with our expert and gain invaluable insights on this postpartum practice.

AMA session highlights on infant massage routine for new mums

Infant Massage is a touch therapy for babies. Also known as massage therapy, it is crucial form of bonding activity in the early childhood that envelops plethora of benefits in its roof for growing babies. Infant Massage is carried out to improve loving touch and create long-lasting bond/connections between parents and their babies.



Infant Massage: Significance, Tips and Benefits

Regardless of whether we are professionally occupied or otherwise, motherhood stress catches up. It transcends career choices and affects mothers from all walks of life. To alleviate the stress and the mental load, it is necessary to be more vocal about your feelings. If not vocal, at least sitting with the thoughts and feelings, categorizing or labelling the emotions that they generate and taking necessary actions to build more resilience in us is mandatory to be more in sync with the present.

How to build resilience is the question moms always ponder. In this fast-paced world where feelings are more precarious and emotions are threadbare, it seems too difficult to navigate in the pool of unsettling mental undercurrents without getting ensnared by their claws. With tiny tweaks in your perception, you can guide your emotions to a safe place and channel them to a healthy path when you are teetering on the edge of a precarious house of feelings. 

When going gets tough, here is how you show resilience:

It is okay to feel – It is absolutely important to feel all sorts of emotions. Emotions allow you to understand more about yourself. 

 Understanding your feelings and the emotions attached to them is the first step to being more aware of your inner turmoil. It will open the gates to better understand yourself and take remedial actions to mitigate the effects of your big feelings.

Feel everything but return to positivity – Making positive your second nature is not easy.

 Serious work is involved. Mindfulness techniques, being in the present and focusing on your strengths and the tasks that drive you to do more will help you return to a state of peace and positivity. 

Do not build castles in the air or aim for unrealistic goals.

 That can make you frustrated and frazzled very easily. Setting focused intentions like ‘I should be happy, I should try controlling my anger, I should listen before reacting, I should make myself a priority’ will help you shift your attention to them and by repetitive process, you will get close to your intended path.  

Several coping techniques can assist in dealing with the stressful life of parenting. Journaling, reframing ideas, exercising, spending time outside, socializing, improving sleep hygiene, and engaging in creative outlets are among them. 

Tailor the coping techniques to your schedule and order of the day.

 Get easy on the techniques as too many coping mechanisms can also make you overwrought. 

 Establish strong social connections to help you become more resilient. Assess your connections and weed out the ones who exude negativity.  Strong supportive and positive relationships can provide emotional and practical help during tough times. To weather storms in your daily routines, you need a reliable circle safe from unsavoury judgements and bias.  

Mom friends can relate to your unique experiences and can help you navigate the complexities of motherhood. They sit with you to listen to your difficulty, do not throw in their opinions unnecessarily, be more receptive to your feelings, and repeatedly tell you that you have a tremendous amount of courage in you. 

In our virtual community meet that we hosted, the one thing that bound all the moms were the words that they uttered. These words are the fulcrum in which they juggle their everyday routine. The phrases were a common denominator, a common vocabulary, unifying each mom’s belief in motherhood and the strength in it. The question was, 

 Without hemming and hawing, quick came the responses from moms – 

Take one day at a time and Go with the flow.

 A little amount of preparation and planning is needed but you cannot be certain of what awaits you in parenting so it makes sense to go with the flow and take one day at a time. 

Momly Resilience group – How does it work?

Momly has proven to be your 4 am friend and life-saving circle to help you be more resilient.

 Momly’s moms are a group of moms who are at different stages of their parenting journey. From aspiring moms, and expecting moms to moms who are in the early motherhood stage, you have a large spectrum of women. Some of them have battled or are presently battling the same struggles as you. You can exchange suggestions, take advice and interact with them to find out more calming strategies. Moms in Momly offer unbiased opinions and encouragement at every step which is a big driving force to be more driven and focused on your goals.

With motherhood instinct and intelligence, and sisterhood emotions in the heart of exchanges, you will certainly make more progress on your path of building resilience.

Our mom groups are inundated with messages and queries. They don’t stop with that as every query gets answered by the other moms, who take time and a moment to catch up on the moms’ needs and answer them with simple, easy-to-follow tips.

– Be it offline meets like Momly Socials or online meets like Momly Virtual Date, offline and online interactions strengthen the bond and add value to the community. It builds trust in each other as well as forge new ties. These friendships go a long way and act as a pillar of support for moms.

 – Incorporating expert advice to heal yourself is highly recommended in your mental strength-building journey. Our Momly experts from across the domains of women’s health offer a well-rounded perspective on the problems essayed by moms.

 – Momly breathes inclusivity in its approach. Being a community that ensures inclusivity, it sees to it that it maintains its welcoming nature throughout its interaction and in all the services that it offers. Every voice and concern in Momly is heard and addressed. This inclusivity nature brings in varied perspectives and becomes a ladder for moms to learn and grow their mental muscles.

Motherhood is fruitful, rewarding and fulfilling but it is also demanding. By embracing vulnerability, cultivating resilience, and seeking support from mom friends, you can navigate challenges with greater strength. Having said that, building resilience requires consistent effort so continue putting your little something every day and most importantly, celebrate the wins no matter how small.

What/who is your source of strength in the tougher times? Let us know your thoughts on building positivity around you so that others get inspired by them and start implementing at the time of need.

Join the Momly App and Momly WhatsApp group. Subscribe and enjoy uninterrupted exchanges with fellow moms.

Empowering Moms in their wellness journey

Regardless of whether we are professionally occupied or otherwise, motherhood stress catches up. It transcends career choices and affects mothers from all walks of life. To alleviate the stress and the mental load, it is necessary to be more vocal about your feelings. If not vocal, at least sitting with the thoughts and feelings, categorizing or labelling the emotions that they generate and taking necessary actions to build more resilience in us is mandatory to be more in sync with the present. 
How to build resilience is the question moms always ponder.  In this fast-paced world where feelings are more precarious and emotions are threadbare, it seems too difficult to navigate in the pool of unsettling mental undercurrents without getting ensnared by their claws. With tiny tweaks in your perception, you can guide your emotions to a safe place and channel them to a healthy path when you are teetering on the edge of a precarious house of feelings. 


Momly – Your 2 AM friend

From the time I remember, I always wanted to adopt a girl child. It was a childhood dream among many others I saw while very young. Giving a good life to a girl child, and giving her a family, she deserved was an underlying thought which was always at the back of my mind while growing up.
As years passed by, education, work, and career happened, the thought got lost among the many other small dreams which never materialised (like learning how to play guitar and become a rock star).

When I met Mayank and we started getting serious about marriage, talks about family and kids started coming up, which is when this tiny little thought re appeared and came up in our conversations. It was then I realised that this was not one of the many random hobbies I had but actually wanted to pursue this further in life. Thankfully Mayank was on the same wavelength as me and it became a very big factor on us deciding to get together in life.

After marriage, life happened and we got busy in each other’s companionship and our respective careers, kids - biological or adopted were still a far-fetched thought which we rarely talked about.

As luck would have it, we got pregnant with our first child in April 2016 after around 4 years of marriage. Life changed again and everything became about managing work, pregnancy and enjoying that phase as much as we could.

Shravin, my son was born on 2nd January, 2017 and that is when my life changed forever. I had not known motherhood can bring such a big change in you physically and emotionally. You become a different person all together and suddenly are the sole caretaker for a tiny human being who looks up to you for their every tiniest need.

My son’s birth re-ignited the idea of adoption again in my head. I had gone through the beautiful journey of pregnancy, childbirth, was learning how to raise a baby with each passing day. However beautiful this was, it wrenched my heart to know there are so many babies who are born with no one to give them love and a good life due to inexplicable circumstances. Such children grow up in foster homes away from love of parents and family. The pain, the child goes through, and the lack of love in their lives were too painful to even think about.

Mayank and I had always wanted a daughter (he really missed not being able to buy pretty dresses and accessories coz we had a son now :D) and hence raised the topic of adoption with each other again. We could give a beautiful life to a girl child and also maintain a gender balance in our family or else our home would have ended up like a permanent sports field with 2 men and 1 woman in the family. It was a deep hidden thought we had to look into again.

But this was a big life decision to be made. Even our friends and family to understand the concept of adopting a child after having a biological child of our own was a thought unheard of in India. We had multiple discussions, arguments, and debates on whether it was a wise decision to make or not. There were many pros and cons to it, most important being will we be able to love this child as much as we do our first born since she will not be from my womb ( a question we had no answer to at that point of time besides just believing in ourselves and our decision).

It took us 2 years to be able to finally come to a conclusion that since we do want a second child, but giving birth again was not an option coz I was not physically, emotionally and mentally ready to go through the process of pregnancy and childbirth again.

In May, 2019, we decided to register on CARA for adopting a girl child in the age bracket of 0-2 years. The underlying thought being with the wait time of 2-3 years, Shravin would become atleast 4 years old. Also, we would have better clarity on what we wanted to do with life and will have bandwidth to take care our second child.

The process was quite intensive with document checks, background verification and home visits to be finally be added to the waitlist of adoption. After registration we became part of many communities where people had registered for adoption and it was wonderful to find a tribe of people who thought like us and were waiting to get their heart child home.

In the whole wait, Covid happened and the waitlist time increased from 2 years to 4 years!!
But thanks to that wait, our belief and wait for our daughter became stronger and we started imagining her in our lives.

Finally in December 2022, we got our referral through CARA. Our daughter was only 5.5 months old and was waiting for us in foster home in Chennai. We got just a small passport size pic of her with all medical reports and just seeing that tiny little face we knew she was ours. Shravin could not hold his happiness that he was becoming a big brother and told his full gang of friends about his little sister born from 3 of our hearts 😊

Finally in 1st week of January,2023 we got SIYA SAXENA home, we were super grateful that Siya chose us as her heart parents, and let us buy some cute little accessories and dresses 😊 So now, we are a family of four with hotwheels and dolls spread on floors across the house. There is family games with father daughter duo teamed up against the mother and son clan. Our heart is full.

Feel free to reach out anytime and I will be more than happy to share the knowledge and nuggets of wisdom that I gained in my journey of Adopting.

Humans of Momly is a series initiated by Momly to bring to you the heart-warming motherhood stories. Motherhood is every bit special but the journey is a mixed bag liked a mingled yarn of pain and pleasure. Know the journey of these moms and gain courage from their episodes.

Are you willing to tell your motherhood story to our community? Write to us on 

My son is the best thing happened to me

Momprenuers Today: Floating Above the Pitfalls

Infant Massage: Significance, Tips and Benefits

Momly – Your 2 AM friend

Adoption of love!

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