A Place for Prenatal Nurturing
“Our vision is to give the mommy-to-be a variety of activities that help nourish and nurture her own self and her growing baby in these very special 9 months.”
— Sanyogita Tanti, Owner and Founder of The Stroller Club
The Personal Journey to The Stroller Club’s Creation
It was 5 am. My heart raced, my pulse quickened, a flurry of thoughts crossing my mind at breakneck speed, as I stared down at the pregnancy test in front of me. As I rubbed my tired sleepy eyes to make sure I was seeing correctly, I felt my heart dip. It was negative. Dejected, I walked back to bed and fell back asleep with a slump.
7 am: I woke up with a start to my husband’s excited cry from the bathroom. “Honey, it’s positive!” With a leap, I was out and in a flash I was by his side, both of us staring down at the little strip that was a window into the happiness we were going to be blessed with. I realized the test had been positive, I just hadn’t had the patience to wait the entire 5 minutes for the test to fully register. In my defense though, those 2 minutes of wait time seemed like much much more!
And that was it! That was the start of the rest of our lives ❤️!
We had no idea what we were in for. We had no clue how to do this. Why don’t they teach a Parenting class at B-School? After all, isn’t this the job we all spend our lives doing?
While the next 2 months were all dedicated to nausea, loss of appetite, an aversion to food of any type, and constant tiredness, our hearts were overflowing with dreams and hopes and we were deep into imagining our lives with our little bundle of joy. We both divvied up our jobs, doing what we were best at. My husband was in charge of all the “must-have” things like crib, car seat, stroller, bottle sterilizer, etc. and I was in-charge of all the “good-to-have” things like toys, clothes, nursery décor, playmats, etc. I’d say it worked out well 😉
The first thing we downloaded was an app that tells you the baby’s development on a daily basis. It touched us so much to know how our little blueberry was turning slowly into a watermelon! Reading the daily development was mind-boggling. The baby’s brain starts developing as early as week Five!
When I read that, my first thought was, “what am I doing to help with that?” I’m eating nutritiously but am I doing enough to stimulate my child’s mind and brain? Isn’t this the time, when I have complete captive audience with my child, that I can put the right foundations in place? I feverishly started checking around in my neighborhood for things I could do to intellectually stimulate my baby’s growing mind; creative activities I could be part of that would help me with my stress & anxiety levels, & flood my body with endorphins; friends in a similar situation as mine so we could compare notes, but all to no avail. All I found were some Lamaze classes, some breathwork sessions, and yoga. But I really wanted a complete 360 degree approach.
So I just decided to do it myself. I started painting and sketching on my own. I’m not an artist by any measure but I love art. I love scribbling, drawing and painting, but don’t go looking for my work of art in any gallery! For the nursery, I started making a cross-stitch hanging and began reading a lot of good books. At one point, I even started reading the LSAT book, to give my baby the extra argumentative skills (like they really need it! But hindsight is always 20/20, isn’t it!). I continued my normal activity levels and worked till the last few hours on my D-day.
Though overall our pregnancy was smooth and trouble free, and my growth was as per the milestones, we had not factored how quickly and explosively our love for this baby would grow. Nothing in this world can compare to the love of a parent for a child. The feeling of protectiveness and wanting nothing but the very best, set in on day 1, and has continued ever since.
The inbuilt mother’s instinct craves for nothing short of the very best for her baby and to be able to give them a life that is fulfilling and beautiful and full of love and happiness.
I would often spend my days dreaming of the person my child would grow up to be. Not the professional choices they would make, but the personal development they would undergo. I dreamt that they would be kind and gentle in a world that is full of contradictions; brimming with positivity and hope where there was dimness; intelligent and smart, creative, honest, loving, and an empathetic human being.
But I worried that being born in a world that is so taken over by social media and emphasis on the outer rather than the inner, how would they cope? What skills can I give them to be able to keep their own minds while everyone around them is losing theirs? How could I make my children strong and brave and have grit?
The Birth of an International Prenatal Community
When our baby girl finally arrived, the moment I held her, my first thought and wish for her was, “I hope you grow up to be good”. And I knew that was our biggest responsibility.
My husband and I were constantly wrestling with questions in all spheres of our child’s development. The more we read about Early Childhood Development, the more we became passionate advocates for it. And this is when the thought behind The Stroller Club was born.
With my second pregnancy, the idea of The Stroller Club became firmer and stronger in my mind. Because just like in the first one, I felt lost in my second pregnancy with respect to the variety of activities I could do, at my own flexibility. All I could find were workout classes and nutrition advice, but I knew from all my reading that Early Childhood Development was a combination of physical, mental and emotional.
Back to present day, my kids are growing up too fast and better than I could’ve ever imagined. My son is now 2 years old, running off to school in the morning, and continuing his shenanigans at the park till the wee hours of the evening. My daughter, who’s 5, is perpetually lost in a land of unicorns, rainbows, and candy trees. I honestly don’t know what my life was before they came into it. It almost seems like this is what I’ve been prepping the whole time for. They are the center of my universe and I love them both to bits (although, sometimes it’s hard to remember that!).
The time we get, we are investing in nurturing our third child, The Stroller Club. We are pouring the dreams we had for our pregnancies into this company and really hope that we can help prenatal parents around the world through this initiative.
With classes ranging across the spectrum, from music, art, knitting, Pilates, nutrition, dance yoga, physiotherapy, meditation, mindfulness and self-care; our vision is to give the mommy-to-be a variety of activities that help nourish and nurture her own self and her growing baby in these very special 9 months. We are bringing together a collective of passionate experts from across the world, to be the guiding hands for these classes. Prenatal moms can access all these classes from our platform once they are in the membership. They can also schedule one-on-one consultations with the experts and take part in live sessions. They will also find a community they can be part of as they navigate their way through pregnancy and motherhood. We also plan to soon add a post-natal module to our offering, so we can complete the circle from prenatal to postpartum.
Our Message to the Prenatal Community
This journey has been rewarding and motivating, and so very full of excitement. Just like parenting our children, we are learning how to parent our growing startup. And we couldn’t have done it alone. Parenting of any sort requires a village of supporters and guides, mentors and friends. And that is what we hope to do with The Stroller Club. So that your pregnancy can be everything you imagined, and more.