Hello! (I've already asked a question today but this one has been on my mind for a looong time. It's a quick one so no worries!)
How do some women not know they're pregnant? Surely the expanding stomach, lack of period, weight gain and/or other symptoms of nausea or food cravings should be a dead give away? I've seen the "I didn't know I was pregnant" shows and have always wondered how you go so long without knowing.
Thanks in advance!
How do you not know?
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al
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Re: How do you not know?
Hi there jellowl,
There are a lot of signs that might tip someone off that they're pregnant, like you mentioned, but there are also some factors that can come together that counteract those signs. Like you, I had always been skeptical of people that didn't know they were pregnant until they were in their late third trimester, until it happened to a coworker of someone in my family. This woman was someone who had some digestive deficiencies so she was constantly underweight. She was in the process of starting a new diet and ended up gaining about 20 pounds over the course of 6 months, and because she was underweight/anemic she also had very irregular periods. That, combined with a lack of knowledge about how her body worked/the signs it was showing, she didn't realize that she was pregnant until she was 6 months along. So even though it is unlikely, sometimes it seems like the stars align in just the wrong way so that people end up not knowing until much further along than everyone else.
To me that definitely is a reminder why the work that we do at Scarleteen is important! Hopefully the frequency of "I didn't know I was pregnant" situations will decrease as young people learn more about anatomy and reproduction and pregnancy risk and such. Personally, I can't really watch that show because it stresses me out. I can't imagine going to poop and ending up with a baby instead!
There are a lot of signs that might tip someone off that they're pregnant, like you mentioned, but there are also some factors that can come together that counteract those signs. Like you, I had always been skeptical of people that didn't know they were pregnant until they were in their late third trimester, until it happened to a coworker of someone in my family. This woman was someone who had some digestive deficiencies so she was constantly underweight. She was in the process of starting a new diet and ended up gaining about 20 pounds over the course of 6 months, and because she was underweight/anemic she also had very irregular periods. That, combined with a lack of knowledge about how her body worked/the signs it was showing, she didn't realize that she was pregnant until she was 6 months along. So even though it is unlikely, sometimes it seems like the stars align in just the wrong way so that people end up not knowing until much further along than everyone else.
To me that definitely is a reminder why the work that we do at Scarleteen is important! Hopefully the frequency of "I didn't know I was pregnant" situations will decrease as young people learn more about anatomy and reproduction and pregnancy risk and such. Personally, I can't really watch that show because it stresses me out. I can't imagine going to poop and ending up with a baby instead!
Nothing happens in contradiction to nature, only in contradiction to what we know of it. -Special Agent Dana Katherine Scully
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Mo
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Re: How do you not know?
Sometimes, too, it's the case that people are in a situation where they are just so disconnected from their bodies, or from facts of their daily life, through something like trauma or severe mental illness, that they either don't really notice the signs or can't quite accept them or admit to themselves what they mean.