Am I Just a Baby Vending Machine? Infertility through the eyes of a fertility specialist

‘Your womb is of no use. If you don’t get pregnant in the next six months, I will get my son married again. We cannot wait any longer.’ Nikita Naredi’s memoir unravels the gory reality of being a woman without a child in a boy-harping society. For a fertility expert like Naredi, treating infertility does not just involve taking care of dysfunctional people’s reproductive anatomies, pumping injections and hormones into the patient or fusing gametes in the lab but a complex mélange of uncomfortable conversations, and altered relationships with partners and families. It questions one’s faith and belief system. Experience this turbulent interplay of biology, emotions and societal expectations through this book. For a woman made to believe that motherhood alone defines her womanhood, childlessness is a shackle no woman wants. Through her experiences, Nikita has attempted to provide an honest glimpse into the lives of sub-fertile couples often riddled with self-doubt, low self-esteem, torment, travails and tribulations. In this ode to her patients, Nikita has also laid bare her own agitation when a woman is exploited, despair when her best efforts to help them conceive fail, victory and joy when the woman conceives, and overall anguish at the social fabric that ignores the predicament of childless women.