I didn't know I was pregnant?

Zookeeper3 · Jan 18, 2011

Denial is a woman's best friend:D Waaay back in high school, had a very large friend whom claimed 'i didn't know'.. no period, not suspicious.. equals denial.

had a crack addict, my first ER delivery, come in screaming that she was having a miscarriage... water broke, delivered a 4 lb. baby in my hands.....

Denial is a river in Egypt. It is what it is and it's a baby... you can't fix stupid.

Mrs. Sparkle Pants · Jan 18, 2011

Ha ha! I love that show! The terrible acting makes it so much better, lol. I will be interested to see if anyone has any real stories!

stephie_love · Jan 18, 2011

Seriously...the women are almost always huge on that show. Also, many are drinking/smoking throughout their entire pregnancy...and low and behold, their babies are healthy and perfect??? :no:

Zookeeper3 · Jan 18, 2011

disclaimer, with my first, at 18, knew I was pregnant.... back cramps, stomach cramps and miserable walking around... finally went to the OB, was only 26 weeks and a kidney infection has set labor in action. Had no idea I was in labor as it's obviously new... but knew the cramping was wrong ,knew I was pregnant and it all worked out to a healthy baby... so Yes I knew pregnant, had prenatal care... but new to delivery that soon was inevitable.

So maybe I can extend a plausible explanation...... but to NOT know? I knew in a month! The delivery aspect I can see, but to not know for 9 months, with a baby kicking? Reeks mental incompetence. If I knew as a teen with the first baby this was wrong, how can you carry for 9 months with a kicking baby on your diaphragm, bladder and what not and act surprised? Have no logic for it.... it doesn't exist. . Hmmmn, denial, and it obviously works.

ashleyisawesome, BSN, RN · Jan 18, 2011

a girl i went to high school with had that happen to her. she gained maybe ten lbs but didnt look pregnant, just filled out a little (she was pretty skinny to begin with), and she claimed she had her period at least a couple days each month. her mom took her to the ED because she was curled up in a ball in horrible abdominal pain, and she came home with a baby.

weird..

kakamegamama · Jan 18, 2011

"Can't fix stupid"? I'm sorry, but that's a judgemental statement. Some women, for whatever reason, may deny they are pregnant. They aren't "stupid" they are often scared, uneducated about their bodies, victims in unhealthy relationships that could lead to abuse, if not already abused. The list goes on why women would live in denial about pregnancy.

Now that I've vented---what can we as nurses do to help better educate women/empower women?

1uvakindmom · Jan 18, 2011

Seriously...the women are almost always huge on that show. Also, many are drinking/smoking throughout their entire pregnancy...and low and behold, their babies are healthy and perfect???

That's what bugs me the most about that show....not the "large" thing, as I am "large" myself...but the babies being ok.

j621d · Jan 18, 2011

They can't seem to connect the dots: if you have sex you might become pregnant. Talk about a disconnect.....

rn/writer, RN · Jan 18, 2011

I thought that not knowing you were pregnant was ridiculous until it happened to my younger sister.

She almost died following a ruptured appendix. Spent weeks in the hospital in excruciating pain from peritonitis. Lost a lot of weight. Had adhesions, scarring, more pain. Was told she probably couldn't have children. Didn't feel anything close to good for many months. She couldn't eat normally and spent a long time recovering.

Fast forward a couple of years. She and her fiance are trying to nap on a Sunday afternoon. She's been cramping for a couple of days, but this "tummy rumbling" has been part of her life since the ruptured appy. She used to cramp with periods, but those have been irregular since the surgery. Occasionally, she'd have spotting, but that's about it. Docs attribute this to her weight loss.

She has put on about twenty pounds in the last six months, but that only gets her back to her weight before the problems began. We're all happy for her to finally start looking like she used to.

So, she's cramping a little more than usual. After hours with no relief, her fiance calls for an ambulance. He's worried that something is very wrong with her internal organs because of the damage the peritonitis left behind.

She's unhappy that he called 911 but is in such pain that she doesn't argue. Paramedics load her into the bus and fiance follows a few minutes later in their car.

He arrives at the ER desk, breathless and anxious, and asks where she is. The receptionist says that mother and baby are doing well and someone will be out to see him in a moment.

He says they must be thinking of another patient and repeats her name.

The receptionist makes a call and tells him someone will be right out.

A nurse comes to take him back and tells him my sister just had a baby. His jaw drops and he goes into shock.

In the ambulance, one of the medics asked my sister if she could possibly be pregnant. She told him about the peritonitis and the lack of periods, etc. He asked if he could check her anyway, and she said sure.

A minute later he told her she not only was pregnant, she was crowning. They barely made it into the ER before she delivered.

This particular hospital, although fairly large, didn't have an OB department. They thought they'd just stabilize her and the baby at the first hospital and transfer them to the other one later.

That didn't happen. The baby was a healthy girl and my sister had no complications. The ER staff was so delighted to have something other than broken bones and MVAs and gunshot wounds that they admitted the two of them rather than ship them out.

In fact, the staff was so touched by their circumstances that a bunch of them chipped in and held an impromptu baby shower the next day. After all, they had nothing for this child.

When my mom called and told me what had happened, I thought she was joking. Fortunately, everything turned out well and my niece is now a lovely junior in high school.

My sister has gone on to have two more children and she was ginormous each time. And, believe me, she knew very well soon after each of them was conceived.

My brother-in-law recovered, too, although he still gets a little pale when he thinks back to that day.

As I said, before this blessed event in our family, I thought these stories were pretty hokey. And many of them probably are. But it is possible, and it does happen to some women.

marda · Jan 18, 2011

We had a lady call the ambulance.....said she was in severe pain from being constipated...they started to examine her and discovered she was in labor....when they told her...she denied it....she denied being pregnant all the way to the delivery....finally the doc said fine....you just delivered a 7lb turd....she finally believed when she saw the baby...btw...this was her third child....

The next one was just a few weeks ago....lady came to ER saying she was cramping and couldn't stop peeing on herself...she was in labor and swore she did not know she was pregnant...also told she had just snorted a gram of cocaine...fortunately, as far as we could tell, the baby was ok....we sent her home 2 days later...we discovered she had left her drivers license...called her to inform her....she did not even remember what hospital or room she had been in....

SBarn · Jan 18, 2011

Amazing and beautiful story rn/writer!