by Sandy Steele

Created on: September 14, 2009   Last Updated: September 15, 2009

While flipping through channels one Sunday afternoon. My mom and I came across a show titled "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant". At first one had to wonder how anyone could not know they were pregnant. However, it has been known to happen on occasion to more women than one realizes.

In each half-hour episode airing on the Discovery Health channel, you will meet two women who concieve, carry and deliver without realizing they were pregnant to begin with. Each has a unique story of how they came to know they were pregnant moments before delivering.

Each episode begins with meeting the women at the beginning of her pregnancy. It then goes through how she could have mis-read pregnancy signs. For example, one was a soccer player in college and just thought she was pushing herself too much. So, she quit the team. Which she thought caused her to gain fifteen pounds.

A lot of the time the women will have irregular periods which to them explains the missing periods. Some of the younger women were in college and choose to party during there unknown pregnancies which to them explains the nausea and vomiting. When given the news they are pregnant a lot of them worry about the babies health in relation to drinking during the early months. While others worry about the general health with not getting the pre-natal care they knew they needed. Especially when they've already had children before.

In almost all of the episodes toward the end of each story the women start having labor pains; which they have attributed to spoiled food, just stomach aches, and even to previous injuries from a car accident. They each go to the doctor wondering what the pain is, only to be told they are in the throws of giving birth. One women had been in a car accident which left her supposedly unable to carry babies to full-term. If she was able she couldn't give birth naturally. When she heard the news she was giving birth, she immediatly went over with the nurses about her condition. They were able to do an emergency c-section for her.

After giving birth most if not all are whisked away to be checked out thoroughly. Suprisingly a lot of them come back with little to no health problems. With the end of each story a certified doctor will go over the woman's story and explain how she could have read the signs of pregnancy wrong. They give statistics about each circumstance.

It is amazing that anyone could go 36 plus weeks without knowing they were pregnant. Each story brings a new, "Oh, my goodness" moment. Whether you are interested in this type of reality television or not, this is a show that you should watch at least once.

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