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Is knowing potential problems in pregnancy more helpful or harmful for the mother?

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Harmful
17% 87 votes Total: 519 votes
Helpful
83% 432 votes

If you're a woman who is thinking about having a child in the future, I have just one question for you. How can knowing the potential problems be harmful? I have never been pregnant and honestly do not plan on ever being pregnant, so I have absolutely no experience. However, if I were to decide to have a child, I would want to have all the testing done that I possibly could.

No matter if it is your first or your fourth pregnancy, things can go badly and you never really know will happen. If you've been pregnant before and were a high risk, wouldn't you want to know if you're at risk if you get pregnant a second time? When you know the possibilities, you can better prepare your life for the changes and accommodations that you need to make in order to care for your child. If you have testing done during your pregnancy, you have more time to prepare yourself for what the future is going to look like.

When you know the possibilities, you can assess ahead of time whether you are capable of caring for that child or not. Not everyone can afford to have a special needs child, nor are they mentally able to care for a special needs child. If you know during your pregnancy that your child is likely to be a special needs child, then the parents can sit down and figure out what they want to do, rather than having to make a snap decision when the child is born.

For me, personally, I wouldn't be able to physically care for a special needs child due to my own physical limitations. I would want to know during the course of my pregnancy so that I could discuss it with my husband and we could determine whether we wanted to try to keep our child. In a lot of cases, both parents are working and only take a little bit of time off, but if there are going to be complications it could be decided what to do and how to care for the child.

Children deserve a chance at happy lives and if they are thrust into a home where the parents were caught off guard about the complications the child was going to be facing, they aren't going to necessarily get a happy life. So I ask you, what harm can come from knowing the potential problems in a pregnancy? I don't see anything that could be harmful, especially if you are arming yourself in order to make an informed decision about your future and the future of your child.

Knowledge is power and power is knowledge. Arm yourself with as much power as you can.

Learn more about this author, Margaret Kerr.
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Below are the top articles rated and ranked by Helium members on:

Is knowing potential problems in pregnancy more helpful or harmful for the mother?

Helpful
  • 1 of 16

    by Beth Nicastro

    I believe in my heart that knowing a prenatal diagnosis can shake a mother to her core but also help prepare her for the

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  • 2 of 16

    by Rebecca K.

    Being educated about pregnancy in general is important for every woman especially if she plans on giving birth one day. There

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Harmful
  • 1 of 4

    by Shayna Barnes

    A woman that intends to become pregnant, or finds herself pregnant should absolutely educate herself to understand proper

    read more

  • by Erin Barker

    Potential parents, expecting parents or ones that already have children will all give different opinions on whether or not

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