by Cheryl Shively

Created on: June 05, 2009

Just like anything else in life, no two peoples experiences during pregnancy are the same. Some may suffer horrible morning sickness, while others none. One woman may acquire Gestational Diabetes, while another may suffer hypertension. Theres too many factors involved during pregnancy to try to compare them.

There are always going to be skeptics in life. Those who say there's no way a woman could be pregnant and not know it, that she must have been in denial or whatever other reason they can come up with. The fact still remains that many women do not ever realize they are pregnant until they are in labor, while others claim to know they were pregnant the day after conception.

There are tons of reasons why someone may not know they are pregnant. Some women believe they are menstruating every month, when in fact it could be a small bleed from the placenta, or just minor spotting. Morning sickness may be shrugged off as a stomach bug. Mood swings are just a small hormone flare up.

Sure, you would think that fetal movement would clue the woman in as to the child they are carrying, but even fetal movement can't be detected all the times. Fetal positioning as well as placental positioning can attribute to reasons fetal movement is not always easily detectable. If the placenta is is between the baby and your abdomen it is going to cushion the fetal movement and make it harder to detect. Another reason someone may not feel fetal movement may be due to some issues in their child's development. If a child is having developmental issues inside the womb, they may be less active.

A woman who doesn't know she is pregnant can go into labor and write it off for several hours or more as food poisoning, premenstrual cramping, or a host of other gastrointestinal issues. The lack of knowledge of their pregnancy may lead to many of these women birthing their babies at home all the while thinking that whatever is going on is anything but labor.

If a woman is on birth control, not very well in tune with her own body, or in denial, whatever the case may be, there's no doubt that these things can and do happen. I personally know of two people this has happened too. One outcome was a perfectly healthy little girl, the other not as happy, but a beautiful little girl was brought into this world. Both cases had different factors that lead the mother to not knowing they were pregnant. So, even when women don't know they are pregnant the conditions and circumstances around it are different, just like they would be if they knew they were pregnant.

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