An exuberant six-year-old Kymani bombards his mother with interruptions as she sits being interviewed. Each time Keriann Browne responds lovingly, gently and with patience.
“Okay, Ky”, she says, “you can go and mummy will call you when she is ready for you.”
Endometriosis and the reality that she might never be able to have children brought her to this place in her life where she treasures any opportunity to interact with her son. “Motherhood was not something that I thought would have happened to me,” said the sugar production technologist, but it did, twice, and she thanks God for Kymani and his ten-year-old brother Ajani.
“I never seriously thought about when I wanted to become a mother. In fact, that was the last thing on my mind.”
That was because, at 24, she was diagnosed with the chronic condition which plagues women.
“I had just finished the University of the West Indies (UWI), found myself an exciting job and was just focusing on learning about sugar manufacture when I started to experience some sharp pains in my pelvic area.”
Endometriosis, which was confirmed after tests, results from the appearance of small pieces of the inner lining of the uterus outside the womb and causing pelvic pain. Some women may find difficulty getting pregnant as a result.
“So when I did get pregnant, it was amazing and I saw it as a gift,” Keriann said. “I have a different appreciation because there was a time that I thought it could not happen.”
Keriann related going through “the longest 24 hours in my life” beginning with “unbearable pains” in August 2004.
After a sleepless night, an ultrasound showed she was having a normal pregnancy instead of the ectopic pregnancy she had feared might be happening because of the endometriosis.
“I went to my family doctor and he told me that I was pregnant . . . those words seemed strange as I was not even thinking that was a possibility.”
Her seven pounds, eight ounces baby boy was born on April 14 the next year and she gave him a name which means “he who overcomes struggles.”
Motherhood has changed the person she used to be. “As soon as I had Ajani I realised I am responsible for another person and I basically became more assertive. It also helped me with my spirituality. I am a lot more patient and I guess I am a lot more loving because having a child tunes you in to unconditional love.”
Four years later she was blessed with Kymani, whose meaning is “adventurous traveller.”
“God has been so good to me and I love being a mother,” said Keriann. “Having my children helped shape the person I am. Every day is a precious gift with my children and I would give my life for them.”
At Portvale, now the island’s sole active sugar factory, she is involved with sugar quality control, the HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) food safety management system, the factory’s effluent system and the sugar bagging operations.
It is a job that can find her at work as many as 15 hours of the day and sometimes seven days a week during the crop season. This is when she relies heavily on her husband Gregory and the strong family support system, including grandparents on both sides.
“I am lucky to have Gregory, a loving husband and friend who has been a huge support to me the 19 years we have been together and especially during our nine years of marriage.”
“He has embraced fatherhood beautifully, dropping off and picking up the boys at school daily as my working hours do not always allow me to do so and it makes my job as a mother easier.”
Keriann began work as a trainee production manager with the Barbados Agricultural Management Company and through extensive on-the-job training, coupled with a university degree, she has made strides in the area of sugar technology.
She had attachments in Australia for three months; Guyana for two months with the Guysuco company as part of an exchange programme, and in Louisiana – all specific to sugar production. The exposure to different cultures has come in useful in rearing her children.
On the one hand, she encourages them in whatever they undertake or show a particular interest. “Once I know what they like, I give them that opportunity. Once I know they are keen on it I give them the exposure because that is the only way they will learn and get to know them.”
On the other, she looks forward to exposing them to that world experience, to help them to be “open-minded and to appreciate different cultures so they can see themselves as citizens of the world”.
While doing this, Keriann still tries to find quality time for her and Gregory to be a couple, doing things they used to do before children came into the picture.
It is tough finding quality couple time together. “We are so taken up with the children,” she said, but on the odd occasion they do find the time “to fit in just Keriann and Gregory”.
