Hush hush affair

Earlier this week, Kylie Jenner announced the birth of her baby girl, Stormi, through a heartfelt post on Instagram. On February 1, the model and reality television star delivered a healthy baby girl she had with her boyfriend, rapper Travis Scott.

Throughout the nine months of her pregnancy, the reality television star, with the help of the entire Kardashian clan and her close friends, managed to keep it all a secret — baby bump included!

Through the announcement post on Instagram, Kylie broke the news of the delivery, and assured fans that both she and her daughter are healthy, and apologised to them for keeping them in the dark about her life, saying, “My pregnancy was one I chose not to do in front of the world.”

In this post, apart from saying that a private nine months is what she wanted, she also said, “I knew my baby would feel every stress and every emotion so I chose to do it this way for my little life and our happiness.”

This was much unlike Kylie’s regular self. The Jenner sister (Kylie and Kendall) and the entire Kardashian family are known to boast of a massive social media following and are constantly updating their online accounts. To the extent that Kim Kardashian was also once robbed at gunpoint because of her constant updates. Also for Kylie to have this hidden, was all that easy considering the paparazzis that are always flocking them.

Online trolling and negative criticism is a phenomenon women are well aware of. From commenting on body sizes to body of work, women have faced trolling for several reasons. And Kylie wanted to stay away from exactly that.

“As celebrities, they are quite often the centre of attention everywhere. And it isn’t always glamorous being in the limelight all the time,” says life coach Chetna Mehrotra. “Sometimes celebrities just want to keep away from all the comments that come with being in the limelight. It doesn’t matter if they are positive or negative comments. Sometimes, being in the spotlight alone is not wanted,” she explains.

It doesn’t come as a surprise that Kylie would want to keep her pregnancy private. Even for someone who is quite often referred to as the social media queen owing to her presence online, she is only 20 years old — very young. “There are a lot of rosy, beautiful things said about pregnancy, being a mother and motherhood in general. I’m not saying it isn’t true. Just that, that isn’t constant for all pregnancies. And it certainly isn’t easy being a young mother,” says Kinjal Pandya, a consulting psychologist.

While that may be true, Chetna believes that a lot of cultures, and people personally also consider pregnancies sacred. “For not just the woman, but the entire family. In fact, in India, we don’t even tell the extended family up until a good couple of months. So, I think Kylie wasn’t asking for too much when she wanted hers quiet,” she shrugs.

It isn’t new that celebrities want such moments private. “Even Anushka Sharma had a private wedding with Virat Kohli,” points out Chetna.

Kinjal also thinks that each pregnancy is different, and should remain private for both mother and child. “When it comes to pregnancies, outsiders think they it’s alright for them to give unsolicited advice to pregnant women. So they are always suggesting something or the other. It is all quite overwhelming, you know. Even at a mature age, women have a difficult time dealing with pregnancies,” she explains.