I don’t generally watch the Discovery Health Channel. Especially on Sundays. Sundays are reserved for hours and hours of football, but yesterday I could no longer watch the awfulness that was the Cowboys vs. Cardinals game and I found myself channel surfing.
That’s when I discovered the horror. A show so scary that I don’t think I will ever be the same. The show was I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant. That pretty much sums it up. Women went to the hospital in extreme pain and ended up giving birth without ever knowing they were pregnant. How’s that for a birthing plan?!
I knew I was pregnant before I ever peed on a stick. That’s totally not an exaggeration. My body felt weird, and I just knew. Then, I threw up every day (twice a day) for 4 months. Plus, Kaeli moved nonstop. Always with the kicking, and the hiccupping, and the using my bladder as a squeeze toy, and the constant back pain, and, omg, the heart burn, it just never ended. By the time I was nine months along, if Kaeli decided to move I had to stop everything I was doing to let her get comfortable because I was in so much pain. I absolutely cannot imagine not knowing that I was pregnant.
But the show proved that it happens. These women were mostly older, and assumed they were going through menopause. Most of them had trouble conceiving their whole lives. They didn’t gain any weight. A couple even lost weight. They had no morning sickness, no back pain, and never felt the baby move. The doctors interviewed on the show gave all sorts of reasons, like a tilted uterus, for how these women didn’t feel anything.
I can’t stop thinking about all the stuff that could go wrong if a woman doesn’t know she’s pregnant. 9 months of no prenatal care. 9 months of strenuous activity (one woman was a volunteer EMS person). 9 months of alcoholic beverages!! The women on this show said that they didn’t drink during the 9 months they didn’t know they were pregnant. Seriously? I like my beer, my rum and diet, my vodka and sprite. I don’t even want to think of what I would do to a baby that I didn’t know I was carrying!!
And let’s not forget the scariest part. Waking up in extreme pain, and thinking you’re going to die. Then, when you get to the hospital (or if your husband delivers your baby on the bathroom floor because you can’t make it to the hospital…yeah…that happened) they tell you that you’re pregnant and having a baby RIGHT NOW. I was totally terrified during labor, and I knew what was going on!!
I was talking to my dad near the end of my pregnancy, and I told him that when I first found out I was pregnant, I didn’t know if I could do it. I told him I didn’t know if I could be ready in time, but that once I got to the end I was ready and knew Kaeli and I would be fine. His response was “That’s why God gives you 40 weeks. Not just so you can prepare by getting stuff, but so you can prepare mentally as well.” Could you imagine having a baby without having the 9 months to prepare for the baby? You deliver a baby and have no car seat, no clothes, and no diapers. No time to discuss and find the perfect name! Imagine missing out on 9 months of actually being pregnant. As much as I complained about it, being pregnant was one of the greatest experiences of my life (the only greater experience is watching Kaeli grow up).
This show has gotten into my head. I shouldn't be so freaked out, but the thought of being pregnant and not knowing is just too much for me!!!
No more Discovery Health Channel for me. No good can come from it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I've heard stories similar to this--only the women were younger. I am still skeptical that some young women claim to go hrough an entire pregnancy without knowing they are pregnant! I am a pretty thin woman (thinner before I had my daughter!) and didn't show until I was about 5-6 months pregnant. But at some point, you gotta be showing something!
A friend of mine said that she just looked bloated when she was pregnant. I dont know where these women put their babies cause I was huge! Every pregnancy has been different for me too but never have I been able to go the whole 9 months without some obvious movements from baby. Weird. But I guess if you dont think you can get pregnant and you are at the age of menopause then its possible. Especially if you are prone to maybe some stomache upset and gas because if the movements are light then you could just think its gas? Still weird though.
WOWZERS!
* cute response from your dad. I love dads =)
I've seen that show! Even more scary was the one where the woman had kids that ended up having different DNA because as an infant she herself was initially a twin, but had absorbed her twin in utero. Somehow, you can keep that second set of DNA in your body, and pass it along to your kids. They took all her kids away as part of a custody battle, and she had to prove in the delivery room when her newest child was born that she, in fact, was their mother. SCARY.
Post a Comment