Dr. Tripti Sharan is a leading name in speciality gynaecology and obstetrics treatment in India. She is widely acknowledged for her versatile and patient-centric approach.
Presently working as Director - Obstetrics & Gynaecology at BLK-Max Super Speciality Hospital, New Delhi. She is also a best-selling author and poet, along with being a blogger, columnist, health activist, speaker, and influencer. An erudite speaker, she tries to spread awareness about the travails of women and doctors. With her dual role as a doctor-author and her distinctive style of writing in both prose and poetry, she occupies a significant place in the hearts of avid readers and literary enthusiasts. The author of powerful women-centric, anecdotal books like The Chronicles of a Gynaecologist, House of Doctors, Anecdotes & Antidotes, she has also written books based on mythology, along with poetry collections. She received the APJ Abdul Kalam’s appreciation award 2022 (Delhi Gynae Forum), ‘Wonder Fogsian’, ’The most inspiring gynaecologist’ (ET), ‘Global Youth Icon Award’, ‘Inspirational women’, besides getting featured by several platforms like Incredible Women of India and Business Manager.
In an Exclusive Interview with Nitish Raj; Editor-in-Chief, Today Magazine, the renowned doctor talks about the health of females during pregnancy and childbirth, along with the ongoing debate of rising medical costs in India.
Q.1 As a Director, Dept of Obstetrics & Gynecology, BLK MAX Hospital, New Delhi, health activist, speaker, and influencer, how do you advocate the need for a patient-centric approach in your work?
TS: As a gynaecologist, my work revolves around women. It’s not just my profession but a passion to work for them. I strongly believe that an empowered woman is the face of a healthy civilization, and I hope to empower women by promoting health and awareness. My biggest challenge has been getting past stereotypes and misogyny prevalent in society.
I quote Mahmoud Fathalla, past president of FIGO, in saying, ‘Women are not dying because of untreatable diseases. They are dying because societies have yet to make the decision that their lives are worth saving.’ We have not yet valued women’s lives and health highly enough. Despite national and international commitments, millions of women and girls, especially the poor, lack access to basic reproductive health services. These include contraception, maternity care, treatment for the complications of unsafe abortions, and the prevention of sexually transmitted infections and HIV. Every woman and adolescent girl needs information, social support, and health services. A measure of national growth & wellbeing lies in the women's health indices that still need improvement. This means that each one of us needs to move out of their comfort zone and contribute. I have tried to go beyond my clinical boundaries and advocate for women’s health in every possible way.
Though medicine is my profession and livelihood, and I have a right to earn with dignity, being a doctor is a huge social responsibility. It is important for all health establishments to keep the welfare of their patient at the centre of all their plans. Women's health doesn’t happen unless there are individual efforts, community participation, government intervention, and support from the healthcare industry. We need to ensure that a woman is safe not just on the roads but beyond. Safe sex, safe abortion, and safe motherhood are the fundamental rights of every woman.
A doctor wears different garbs, sometimes a clinician, sometimes a raconteur, sometimes a listener, sometimes a speaker, sometimes a counsellor, sometimes an activist, and sometimes just a friend. But in every role, we observe and have the well-being of our patients in our heart.
Q.2 How much does the mental well-being of a patient play an important role in getting their ailment cured?
TS: WHO defines health as a complete sense of mental, physical, and social well-being. Currently, we are facing an epidemic of lifestyle diseases. Stress has become a part of our lives, beginning from childhood and student life. It remains a very important risk factor for many diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, and obesity, etc. It can aggravate the disease process and lead to more suffering. And a holistic approach in treating diseases can improve the well-being of those suffering from even end-stage, terminal diseases. Only a mentally healthy person can handle their disease, take proper treatment, and look after themselves. Unfortunately, there is little support in our country for those suffering from chronic ailments. And most of them get exhausted dealing with their disease. So, it is very important to look after their mental well-being, not only the patient but also the caregivers. It hastens recovery in the majority of cases.
Q.3 In India, there are still a lot of taboos prevalent when it comes to the pregnancy period and childbirth. What would your advice be to the would-be mothers?
TS: Pregnancy and childbirth are a very important phase in a woman’s life. The day a baby is born, a mother is also born. But she is new and inexperienced. It helps to get support from her husband and family. In India, we have close-knit families & friends. In many households, husbands are not encouraged to play a proactive role, and people do not refrain from giving a piece of unsolicited advice even when they are not qualified to do so. There are a lot of myths surrounding pregnancy and childbirth. Most of them are unfounded and unscientific, but they are forced upon women as they come from their parents or a senior family member. There are plenty of food fads, too. Women are not allowed to eat healthy food such as spinach, grams, eggs, meat, or even milk in the postoperative period. Many food items are passed off as ‘garam’ food, not fit for pregnant and breastfeeding women. They are often fed ghee in milk to have a vaginal delivery. People develop fixed ideas about either vaginal or caesarean delivery. Some of them develop a deep-seated fear of labour pains and insist on a caesarean. Even during child rearing, there are a lot of taboos & illogical practices. They confuse the mother and shatter her confidence. Many women are forced to give top feeds to their babies and indulge in forceful toilet training at an age when it is detrimental to the baby. There are also superstitions that restrict the movement of mothers. These can many times lead to unnecessary isolation and psychological problems, such as postpartum blues and postpartum depression also.
It is advisable to have a scientific temperament and indulge in healthy practices. One should take a balanced diet rich in iron, calcium, and proteins, and exercise under the guidance of your doctor. These days, most hospitals organize antenatal classes where they encourage women to come with their husbands or other family members and receive useful information about pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, and child rearing. Ideally, care should start from the preconception period. A couple should begin their pregnancy well prepared and informed. This impacts pregnancy in a positive way. Doctors should also encourage communication with the woman and her family.
Q.4 A keen academician having several publications to your credit, what inspired you to spread awareness about the travails of women and doctors?
TS: Motherhood remains a central role in the life of women. Yet the majority do not have reproductive rights. The difficulties in combating prejudices and the social bigotry that I faced led me to penning my thoughts in my books. The zeal to help women fight stereotypes led me to voicing my thoughts at several platforms.
Though it is motherhood that brings a woman to my clinic, it is the woman who inspires me to write. As a doctor, I get to see them in their most vulnerable moments, and these moments are both revealing as well as inspiring. I have seen women sitting quietly on a stool in my clinic, lying in distress in my wards, speaking brazenly or sometimes quietly hiding behind the shadows of their husbands. As I say, I do not see patients, I see emotions. Sounds like a cliché, but every emotion breathes a story, and every story needs to be told. As Mark Twain said, Truth is indeed stranger than fiction. And I chose to write the truth.
We are all living lives so unique from each other. However, it is not our similarities but our differences that define us. So much would be lost if we do not share and learn from each other. I wanted to share with people the truth that breathes behind the closed, sanitized walls of a hospital.
I have always fought for two sections of society, women and doctors. I believe they both suffer from stereotypes. There are a lot of expectations from society of them. Further, these are troubled times, where so much is being said that ‘truth’ becomes a myth. We keep hearing what the patients talk about doctors, what the media talks about doctors, but we rarely hear what the doctors think about their patients. That is where my books come in. They give a much broader perspective of the factors that interplay in the professional career of a doctor and promise to become a bridge between the medical and the non-medical world. My mission is almost accomplished when someone writes to me that ‘they never knew doctors could feel like this, or that this has changed the way they perceived the doctors.’
I wanted to trace the arduous yet exciting journey of medical students as they move on from working on cadavers to dealing with real people and diseases. How they cope with unrealistic pressures and conflicting situations that test their grit. How they put aside their own emotions and take tough decisions, and above all, their tenacity to revel in their profession.
I didn’t want to glorify them. I just wanted people to take a brief sojourn into the world of medicine, understand their dilemmas, their fears, their struggles. I wanted to be candid. I wanted to be emotional, too. I wanted to reveal a side of the profession that people are unaware of, how medical students are taking on challenges and are pushing new frontiers, every day, in their quest to be known as lifesavers.
Medicine is a very engrossing field, and though it keeps me tied up, as I experience pain, suffering, and grief, the sensitive side of a writer develops and becomes an outlet in my tense moments. It teaches me compassion and makes me a better doctor and a human being. It’s almost a catharsis to me. There is a pearl of ancient wisdom in putting your feelings into words. Just as you see the orange light at the traffic signal and hit the brakes, when you put your feelings into words, you hit the brakes on your emotional responses and start healing. Writing becomes therapeutic, and that’s one of the very important reasons why I write.
Related Articles
Dr. Ganesh Rakh - A Crusader on a Mission to Save Girl Child
An Exclusive Interview with Corporate Geek-tuned-Educationist; Shilpi Shukla
An Exclusive Interview with Masarrat Tavawalla; Co-Founder & Director, Sunderji's Global Academia
Q.5 A proud winner of several prestigious awards, APJ Abdul Kalam’s appreciation award being one among them, how do you see such accolades being a significant part of an individual’s success journey?
TS: Awards are not entirely necessary, but they can be seen as a token of appreciation for your hard work. Validation is the best encouragement and sometimes makes everything feel worthwhile. These days, we have a lot of paid awards too, hence the value of awards has indeed gone down. A genuine award can be a great moral boost. Many people use awards to advertise themselves as well. It might give them a moment of high, but in the end, it’s the quality of your work, your knowledge, and skills as a doctor that brings you accolades. I have always stayed away from paid awards and am thankful for all the support and encouragement, as well as the awards that I have received from my organization and my fraternity. Every award fills me with humility and puts more responsibility on me.
Q.6 There has always been an ongoing debate about high medical costs in a country like India. Do you think it’s justified, or has this debate just been overhyped?
TS: These days, the doctor–patient relationship is on a decline, leading to a deficit in respect and trust. Multiple reasons have aggravated the situation. The success of a treatment cannot be guaranteed by the money spent, but by the disease process and the available resources to tackle it. Doctors face several challenges. In the government hospitals, it’s a redundant infrastructure; in the private hospitals, it is the rising costs and unaffordable health care for the majority. Doctors are forced to face the brunt of it when we are not responsible for either. Rather, doctors are the saving grace of the health care system of our country and should be appreciated. But we are often exploited, overworked, and stretched beyond boundaries. What the majority of people don’t realize is that doctors live in the same healthcare system and pay the same as other people when it comes to looking after their health and that of their loved ones.
A defensive, apprehensive, fearful doctor is not in the best interest of a country that still suffers from a deficit of doctors. While Indian doctors working abroad have been appreciated for their exemplary work, on the domestic front, doctors are facing a lot of hostility, and lately, there has been an unprecedented rise in violence against doctors.
The cost of living has spiked over the decades, and healthcare cannot remain untouched by it. With newer technology, there has been a lot of innovation. We now have new technology to investigate, diagnose, and treat diseases. But it comes at a cost. Drug pricing and, cost of equipment are not decided by doctors, but there are several stakeholders such as the drug controller, government, pharma companies, and the manufacturers who decide that. In a corporate setup, once again, it’s not the doctors deciding the charges. But unfortunately, it’s always been the medical community that has faced the backlash, held responsible for anything that concerns healthcare despite their limited role. Low remuneration, little regard from society, poor quality of life, long working hours, and a very late age of settlement have increased the mental burden of doctors, with many young doctors now opting to shift abroad for a better life.
If we compare the cost of health care globally, India is still affordable. The waiting time is less, especially in private hospitals, and Indian doctors are more accessible, unlike West. That’s the reason India is becoming a popular destination for medical tourism
Q.7 What would be your advice to the youngsters who want to make a career in the medical field?
TS: Be ready to sacrifice a significant part of your life studying, and the rest, taking care of other people. Being placed on a pedestal next to God is a huge responsibility and is mentally very stressful. The return may not always be financial, but remember, there is no greater high than that of saving lives. And that is what this profession gives you beyond everything and anything.
