Support For The Toughest Times

Dr. Payel Biswas Soo

Giving birth to a child and starting a family is the most sacred testament of communities since time immemorial. As such, helping the parent(s) deal with the anxiety of the entire process, while also giving quality assistance throughout, is a truly godly act. Dr. Payel Biswas Soo is a person that takes this responsibility extremely seriously; as a Lactation Specialist and OB/GYN Physiotherapist of high repute, she has guided various parents through what is probably the most challenging times in their entire lives. This includes not just the period of the pregnancy, but also the period of post-natal care that can often be extremely confusing for a lot of parents, especially those from the lower socio-economic backgrounds.

Looking at her breadth of experience inspires nothing but trust and confidence. She has had more than fourteen years of experience in the medical field, with considerable experience as a Childbirth Educator, Lactation Specialist, and OB/GYN Physiotherapist across various well-known Maternity, Multi-Specialty Hospitals and Fertility Centers across Bangalore. She has also worked as a Lactation Expert and Advisor in Ayzh, USA & India.

Children and families need the best start in life. Having worked with children and families for nearly 14 years as a women’s health physiotherapist, childbirth educator, and lactation specialist, I came across knowledge and skill gaps in healthcare providers. As a mother myself, I was aware that early and prompt support goes a long way in ensuring complete care. A holistic approach to these issues has a desirable outcome for families and satisfying for the healthcare provider.

More importantly, however, she goes well beyond just fulfilling her professional duties in her endeavors to give back to society. As a professional in the field, she is incredibly sensitive towards the presence of women in the smallest nooks and corners of our societies who do the job she does, to the best of their abilities as midwives and doulas. For people like them and for other trained professionals like Obstetricians, Gynecologists, and Pediatricians, she convenes a number of international conferences and workshops. The most notable one is the ‘Birthing the New Humanity,’ which is meant to create a global network of such professionals where ideas can be exchanged, and collaboration can result in practical solutions to important problems from the perspective of societal health.

She is the founder of the organization ‘Institute of Human Sciences for Holistic Health’, which works with the stated goal of working to improve societal practices that affect the physical health of people in the community, to reliably improve the health of the forthcoming generations. Through all this, it seems clear that Dr. Payel’s passions for her work lie at an intimately emotional level; as a mother herself, she understands the responsibility that women often have to bear, of being the caretaker of the family, especially in Indian households. Other than that, she also understands the anxiety of going through with a pregnancy and wanting to do everything just right. It is because of all that that her efforts to help others with the same become that much more admirable.

There are a lot of surveys conducted in India and worldwide, by reputed institutes and organizations, which talk about how mothers are unable to breastfeed their babies. One of the reasons is the lack of professional support and guidance at the right time to the mothers and their families. Hence this institute is aimed at providing enough knowledge and practical training to medical professionals to address this issue.

She has won a number of accolades for her work. She was a nominee for the ‘Rising Star Award’, awarded at the ‘Times Healthcare Achievers Award’, in Bengaluru in 2018. She also won the ‘Iconic Women’ title at the Women Economic Forum held in New Delhi in 2019. Most recently, she has won the title of ‘India’s Most Impactful Woman Healthcare Entrepreneur’ by Blindwink at India Excellence Awards 2019.