A surprise pregnancy can totally upend a person’s life. Whether they are the mom or the dad, it changes literally everything about their lives. And when the pregnancy is unwanted, it adds even more additional problems.
Accidents Happen
It’s important for women and men who are experiencing an unwanted pregnancy to not be so hard on themselves. The first thought everyone has is blame. The mom wants to blame the dad, and the dad wants to blame the mom. Both parents want to blame the birth control method. Sometimes the blame does lie in one of these places.
The truth is that even if the parents were using their birth control methods carefully, sometimes they can fail. Everyone knows that condoms can and will break. Women will sometimes forget to take their birth control pill. It’s rare, but a vasectomy can also fail. Then there are men who believe they are sterile and an unwanted pregnancy still happens.
Implants and IUDs must be updated on time. There are plenty of reasons why an unwanted pregnancy can happen. Of course, parents should find out why it happened to avoid a repeat surprise pregnancy later on. But it’s also important not to waste time assigning blame.
Hormones
When the pregnancy is a surprise, women often don’t know they are pregnant for an extended period of time. Many women have irregular menstrual cycles and being late is a common occurrence for them, so they don’t suspect pregnancy right away.
But being pregnant makes huge changes in a woman’s hormones. This is another factor that makes an unwanted pregnancy even harder to deal with. Women will experience wide mood swings when they become pregnant. This can make it even harder to make decisions. What seemed like the right decision yesterday when the woman was cheerful, suddenly seems like the wrong decision the next day when the woman feels sad.
Changes in the Female Body
Not only is a missed period a sign of early pregnancy, but spotting between periods can also happen. When the egg implants in the uterine wall, some spotting is common. Breasts become tender and sore. Often the first thing a woman notices is nausea and vomiting. Fatigue and bloating are frequent signs. Your doctor may notice an increase in your blood pressure, and your temperature may be elevated.
Many women may try to ignore these symptoms when it is an unwanted pregnancy. They don’t want to believe they may be pregnant, so they find other reasons for the symptoms.
Choices
Women need to discover their pregnancy as soon as possible because it changes their choices. Many clinics offer a free pregnancy test. Women need to go ahead and take a pregnancy test if they suspect they may be pregnant. The stage of the pregnancy can change some of the choices available about how to handle the unwanted pregnancy.
Termination
The main choice that parents have to make about their unwanted pregnancy is whether to keep the baby or not. If parents choose to terminate the pregnancy, that procedure can be done more easily early in the pregnancy. Early termination is easier on the woman’s body and doesn’t prolong the agony of trying to decide one way or another.
If parents are having a hard time deciding whether or not to terminate the unwanted pregnancy, it’s important to get some outside counseling. There are counselors at health clinics who have been trained to help people make this decision and live with their decision afterward. Talking to a third party can often clarify a person’s thoughts and make the decision a little easier.
Keep the Baby
Once parents get over the initial shock of the surprise pregnancy, many parents choose to keep the baby. They feel ready to be parents and make the tough decision that they can handle all the changes that the baby will bring to their lives.
Adoption
The third choice is to complete the unwanted pregnancy, but not keep the baby. There are lots of couples wanting to adopt a baby. This is another hard choice because it requires the woman to go through all the changes to her body that pregnancy brings. But sometimes, in the long run, it helps a woman accept what has happened.
