Nobody truly understands what’s going on inside a woman’s head while she tries to figure out what to do about being pregnant. Even women living the ‘ideal life’ (husband, financially secure with a good medical-aid) have anxieties: will I cope with labour, will I endure breast-feeding and will I have to stop working? But there’s a lot more at stake for independent millennium women who aren’t married. How will he respond to the news? What will happen to their relationship? Pregnant teens become mothers before their time. Too immature to deal with the emotions that come with pregnancy, they choose to ignore them and bungle their way day by day through their pregnancy with no choice but to allow adults to make decisions for them. The price they pay is often for life.
To cope, you need to TALK to somebody – friend, sister, family member, grandmother and mother (in that order!) so that by the time you get to talk to the family matriarch you have figured out some of the answers to the questions you KNOW she is going to ask!
Make a list. Seeing the practicalities over the next nine months in writing puts them into some kind of perspective. Jot down your options. Draw an action-map.
Spend quiet time alone – take a stroll through your local library or book store and read about how other women have coped. Pray in a place of worship or remembrance garden. Light a candle. Be at peace with yourself – and the new life growing within you.
