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Reactions to Pregnancy

Feelings of Women Who have Just Discovered They are Pregnant

Finding out that you are pregnant when you are not expecting it can be an emotional experience. You may feel many emotions all at once or experience mood swings. We asked a few women how they felt after finding out they were pregnant, and here is what they had to say:

Sarah
“I didn’t want to believe that I was, but I really knew I was. For about the first month, I was sort of in denial; then after I missed my first period, I knew. He (my boyfriend) was the one that kept saying, ‘I think you’re pregnant.’”

Tammy
“All of a sudden I’m pregnant and I’m going ‘Oh my gosh, what am I going to do?’ I was scared to death and like, I’m not ready to be pregnant, because I wasn’t at all. You’re just out of high school and that’s where your life starts a lot of times.... I didn’t tell my parents until I was five months along because I wasn’t ready to deal with their reaction.... I didn’t want to deal with my parents’ disappointment.... and I was really disappointed in myself.”

Katherine
“I was scared.... The first person I told was the father, Scott, and then I told my Mom.”

Kristin
“I felt every kind of emotion you could imagine. I went from being happy to being completely stressed out, to anxiety, to being scared for my life, to being worried that I was going to be ok—excited about what was happening, just every emotion...There was a lot of fear involved, mainly because of my situation. There wasn’t a whole lot of shock.”

Sue
“I was feeling scared.... I was sure that I wasn’t (pregnant) because I’d been in so many times before and had tests and never was before. I was really scared and had no one to talk to.... When I got home I just cried for hours .... [I felt] fear of how my boyfriend was going to react—really scared that he was going to say, ‘Well, that’s it. It’s over.’”

You may have felt some of the same things these girls have. Just remember that it’s perfectly normal to feel fear, shock, denial, sadness and disappointment. So go easy on yourself, and take some time to adjust emotionally to your new circumstances.

“It is perfectly normal to feel fear, shock, denial, sadness and disappointment.
So go easy on yourself.”