“I’ve accepted the situation for what it is, and I’m happy about it”

Life has been a matter of expecting the unexpected for Tirelo Nonhlanhla Kale, from being a student with a practical Tswana background to embracing polygamy and whatever unknowns that come with the territory. The accounting scholar, who stars on Mzansi Magic’s Izingane zeSthembu, is introduced to fans across Mzansi as one of Mpumelelo Mseleku’s girlfriends, specifically girlfriend number two.

The pair have been together for two years, and are now expecting their first child together. For Tirelo, the journey – from discovering she was going to be a mom to finding her feet after the revelation – has been anything but straightforward.

The twenty-three-year-old expressed a sense of shock even though she admitted to being a person who didn’t show too much emotion upon finding out that she was expecting.

“I can’t say that I was sad, but I was just not ready for the change. The change of bringing a human being into the world and embracing my role as a mother,” she said.  Tirelo is due in the next coming months.

As with most mothers-to-be, there were tell-tale signs of the pregnancy. When asked about them, she giggled and recalled an incident that raised questions within her. Something she initially didn’t make anything out of.

“I am a person who loves take-outs. So this other day Mpumelelo and I were out having pizza, but for some odd reason, I just wasn’t feeling it. I vomited, and I was like, ‘Hhayi bo. No, there’s something wrong here’,” she said. She expressed that she’d always known that pregnancy entailed a myriad  of heralds such as this, but she’d never pictured it happening to her the way that it did.

With the baby being all that she needed to ground her, Tirelo talked about her physical experiences as a pregnant woman and how active the baby was.

“I’m not experiencing anything particularly funny. I mean, my baby kicks and is very active. So, the things that we normally read about when it comes to pregnancy, no. Just the normal kicking, that’s all,” she said.

The road to motherhood is one popularly marked with rites of passage such as gender reveals and baby showers. For Tirelo, it has been different, with her expressing reservations when it came to baby showers in particular.

“As for baby showers, there are some reasons that are making me feel like I shouldn’t have that. There’s a belief doing rounds that says if you do things like baby showers, that’s when people might do something [bad] to you and get a miscarriage. Stuff like that,” she said. This paranoia is what contributed to her not wanting to hold baby showers.

Tirelo shared that she loved exercising caution, making decisions in such as way as to not live to regret them tomorrow.

With motherhood being a swift transition entrenched in self-sacrifice and the well-being of her baby, she admitted to being anxious and wonders if she’d be up for the task. But she’s also positively reconciled herself to her new reality.

“I’m worried because I don’t know if I’ll be a good mom or a bad one,” she said. “I’m just not sure how I’ll navigate around motherhood. I don’t go out a lot anymore because now I have to make sure that everything is going well and go for checkups. And I’ve been spending more time with myself because I need to adapt. Nonetheless, I’ve accepted the situation for what it is, and I’m happy about it.”