Joanne Peh wants a natural birth for Baby Qi

SINGAPORE — Baby Qi is unresponsive when it hears its father’s voice, but appears to be stimulated by its mother’s latest drama.

At a press conference held today (April 28) for the upcoming MediaCorp TV Channel 8 drama Mind Games, lead actress Joanne Peh, who is six months pregnant, shared that she “felt a lot of kicking” while watching the show clips that were aired during the conference.

Peh plays a cop in the action-packed thriller, which also stars Tay Ping Hui, Paige Chua, Terence Cao, Zhang Yao Dong and Akit Tay.

In contrast, when husband Qi Yuwu, who is currently working in China, calls, the baby is calm.

“I bought speakers so that the baby can hear its father talking to it. But its reactions are quite slow!” she said. “While he’s speaking, it doesn’t move. Maybe it’s listening quietly. He speaks to it in Cantonese, while I speak to it in English and Mandarin. He tells it, ‘Be good, take care of mummy, daddy misses you.’”

Qi was back in town to attend the Star Awards on Sunday, but has since flown back to China. “He hasn’t been around much and he’s not in town now, but when he’s around, he won’t let me wash dishes or carry heavy things,” Peh said.

As she enters her last trimester, Peh has been baking and getting up “whenever I want to”. “Last year it was one show after another and I was tired for a whole year,” said the actress, who is grateful for the break her pregnancy is affording her. She is also busying herself with pre-natal yoga and pilates, brisk walking, and working out on the step machine.

She is also getting used to the changes her body is going through. “I’ve never been big before, so to suddenly see myself having a tummy was a little bit of, ‘How do I react to this?’ Now, when I sit down, I feel something in the way. But then, on the other hand, I guess only women have the opportunity to go through something like that. Men don’t. (And) it’s happening because it’s natural. It’s not because I just decided to let go of myself and binge eat and things like that. I should be very thankful that I have this opportunity to experience it.”

After she came to the realisation, Peh said, “It became something that I look forward to, (like) ‘Okay, how big is it going to be?’, ‘Okay, never mind, this pair of pants cannot wear, I’ll just put it aside!’”

She is equally optimistic about the delivery, which she wants to undertake without pain relief. “That has always been how we’ve been with our lives as well — everything is kind of just natural and the way it’s supposed to be,” she said, adding: “I actually am looking forward to the delivery. I think it’s a very empowering thing for a woman to deliver naturally and do something that a man can’t.”

Peh revealed she has participated in an “active birthing course”. “Hopefully, I’ll put that into practice and deliver in a most natural and peaceful and uncomplicated way.”

There is one thing she isn’t so chipper about, though, and that’s having to abstain from certain foods. “Pineapple, mango, alcohol… (Giving up) sashimi is so painful!”

So, is Baby Qi a boy or girl? For now, Peh is keeping mum — if you’ll pardon the pun — about the baby’s gender.

“We just want to keep it something that is private to us, like how we have been with our wedding. Our closest friends and family know, and they feel special. This is something that is intimately ours. So we want to keep it for ourselves. Everyone will know sooner or later. At this stage we just want to preserve a little bit of privacy,” she said.

So has she told celebrity hairstylist David Gan not to “accidentally” leak the news on Instagram, like he did with their secret wedding last September?

“No, actually,” Peh said. “I really don’t remember whether I told him (the baby’s gender). I never used to believe in (pregnancy brain) and then now, it’s like, ‘Okay - guilty.’”

Catch Mind Games starting Thursday, April 30, weekdays at 9pm on MediaCorp TV Channel 8.