I’ve heard a lot of stories about women who supposedly didn’t realize they were pregnant until they turned up at the hospital with “pains” and discovered they were about to deliver a baby. Having just gone through pregnancy, this seems absolutely incredible to me. Didn’t they feel the baby move? Were they accustomed to having indigestion with knees and elbows? How could this happen?
Do any of the TM’s out there actually know someone who witnessed this or went through it?
I’ve seen a few episodes of “Jerry Springer”- type shows where a woman (usually it’s a teenager) doesn’t realize she’s pregnant until she has a baby. Usually she’s a pudgy girl and thus doesn’t notice the weight gain. Of course, at this point my hand would go up and say “Didn’t you think something was amiss when you didn’t get a period for nine months?” But my wife says that in some women, and in teenage girls, their periods are so erratic that they wouldn’t give the issue a second thought.
So there you have the recipe. If you:
Are pudgy and thus wouldn’t get alarmed at gaining a few dozen pounds,
Have erratic periods,
Are too young (or too naive) to distinguish baby’s kicking from indigestion,
…you MIGHT have a surprise baby, at which point you could give Jerry a call-- I’m sure he’d love to hear from you.
My second cousin delivered a full term surprise baby boy on her parents couch. She was in her mid 20’s and very pudgy…hell, she was fat,OK?
The doc’s speculated that she didnt know about the baby because of the positioning of her uterus was such that the kicking etc was all directed inward…felt like gas, cramping, etc. She never missed a period either.AND I believe they were using birth control too…so she would never have suspected a pregnancy.
They had to scramble to get stuff for the baby, but they were thrilled.
She had NO CLUE!
They sent in a urine sample to the tiny rural hospital for testing when she started having pains…thinking maybe her appendix, or kidneys were to blame…they were on the way with an ambulance when she delivered.(she didnt GO to the hospital up there, because they really arent equipped to deal with much …she would have gone to Moncton for treatment after they did the tests on the urine.)
Anyway, its not an urban legend.
His name is Cody.
Kel, that’s the second story I’ve heard in the past week about a surprise pregnancy during which the mother contined menstruating.
WTF?? Is that just a wierd anomaly? I mean, pregnancy usually turns off menstruation–was it just a fluke it didn’t in these cases, or was there some other cause?
This is just too wierd. But then, I have a Y chromosome.
-andros-
“Listen Children Eternal Father Eternally One!” Exceptions? None!
-Doc Bronner
Also, you’re failing to consider the all important self-denial factor.
Can any medical people give us a layman’s explanation of what it means for a pregnant woman to have a period? Sounds like a contradiction in terms to me.
Does a normal amount of blood come out? Exactly what is it that does come out in these situations? Normally, the period is made up of an egg that didn’t get fertilized, and some other yuck. If a woman has a period during - for example - her 7th month of pregancy, does that mean it is possible for her to have gotten pregnant with a second baby at that point? Two months later she gives birth to baby #1, and keeps a two-month old embryo (fetus?) in the oven for another seven months? Is such a thing possible?
Mostly the other yuck, which consists of endometrial lining; ova are tiny little critters. Spotting during pregnancy is not uncommon; a full-blown period would be rather unusual, but many young teenagers apparently don’t get periods on the scale that adult women do anyhow.
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I can vouch for the period thing myself–I’ve had “periods” the first 2 or 3 months with both my pregnancies. I also know someone who said she had periods for the first 6 months with all 3 kids. In fact the last time I only found out I was pregnant because I went to my doctor to check up on a period that was going on too long–I had been pregnant for 5 or 6 weeks. It probably has to do with hormone levels–they put me on progesterone to stop the bleeding and the pregnancy continued normally.
I agree that denial may be a part of it in some cases. I know that the opposite is true, too. When I was trying to get pregnant, I noticed even the slightest potential symptom.
My wife has something in her uterus, a fibroid thingy or whatever, that caused her to bleed off and on all through her monthly cycle and during her pregnancies as well. It’s apparently benign, since the doctors have been watching it for years and it’s never shown any signs of malignancy.
Oh, and it’s stopped bleeding ever since she started taking DHEA. The stuff also cleared up a chronic acne condition she used to have. For her at least, it’s worked wonders.