You would know if you were pregnant SURELY?

[Gwladgwlad]

Heard one of those stories today- friend of a friend out on a friday night as normal, next day gets tummy pains & has a baby! No bump, no symptoms, out of the blue!?
SURELY you would suspect? Both my dc's were lively in my tummy, my belly moved a lot and I felt them constantly. Its not like having bad wind or something.
SURELY you would know!? Suspect things werent as per normal!
Aibu - it just leaves me amazed!!

I agree Tortoise Those that I want to know I was in denial I have told. Other people don't need to know and I would be beyond upset if they kept asking me. I was just trying to say it is possible to pretend you didn't know.

I didn't know I was pregnant until 25 weeks, having previously been diagnosed with polycystic ovaries I was told that my periods could be very irregular, after 6 months without a period I went to the doctor and she suggested I do a pregnancy test just in case, I then told a friend and she also thought I was pregnant so got me a test. I didn't feel any movements until after 25 weeks because I had an anterior placenta and I hadn't noticed my weight gain particularly. I guess if I'd have really stopped to think about it then I'd have realised earlier but because I really wasn't expecting it the thought never entered my head so yes I believe it's completely possible for a woman to mistake pregnancy symptoms for something else right up until baby is born

Of course I would never say to a woman I thought she was lying about her surprise birth. I have never met, and am
Unlikely to meet, anyone this has happened to. We're just discussing it on a Internet forum for goodness sake!

spiderlight, that's lovely!

It's fascinating. For those of us who ended pregnancies the size of a whale unable to see our feet or even get out of bed without rolling around like a beached turtle it's almost impossible to imagine. Doesn't mean it's not true though.

I do wonder if for some women, especially younger girls, there is a huge amount of denial going on.

Mil didn't know she was pregnant till she was 7months with bil. She continued to have "periods" and although she put on a bit of weight it was over Xmas and having seen pics of her back then you certainly wouldn't say bump like. It was only when she went to the drs for painfull nipples/breasts she found out!!

She found out at 5 months with DP because she knew what to look for lol

I'm on the bigger size so didn't get a noticeable bump till seven months. When neighbours saw me after the birth they asked whose baby it was! I knew I was pregnant but had no morning sickness and baby was back to back so I didn't feel her till 24 weeks. No other symptoms. Dietician even put me on a diet and I lost a stone and a half.
Would have been very easy to not realise I was pregnant if I hadn't have been actively trying.

But you accept that it can happen, Serenitysutton.

(a) If someone else believes that it's completely impossible for a woman to carry a pregnancy to full term without realising and that therefore anyone who says that that happened to them must be lying, are they going to be as considerate in RL?

(b) If someone it did happen to (who will by definition be a mother. And might use parenting forums) reads a bunch of posts saying "I actually don't believe that a woman doesn't know", especially after encountering the people from (a) in real life, that's not especially helpful either. It's like the baby name threads -- a post really laying into a name (as opposed to a mild "not my style" or "might date badly") is going to be read by other people who either have that name themselves or have already given it to their child. And it's not nice.

I always dreamt that this would happen to me, so that I would skip the whole morning sickness, SPD etc etc.

I think it is amazing that some people didn't get the whole stomach moving and rib kicking in the end of pregnancy!

How can you not feel a baby move? I had anterior placenta but at the end they don't have any room to move and when mine so much as moved a finger I felt it I am sure.

I find it amazing that some people never got that :)

Also, don't most women leak milk in early pregnancy? I did with all five from 19 weeks. Maybe that isn't the norm though.

I got to nearly 5 months not knowing I was pregnant.
I'd lost 2 stone, stopped throwing up, hadn't had a period for over a year, and tested negative when I would have been about 10 weeks (New Year's Eve - went out and drowned my sorrows).

Luckily when I thought I had flu and needed a doctor's note, the GP included pregnancy in the routine blood tests he sent me for, so I got a letter telling me I was pregnant.

Otherwise it would have been at least 7 months before the 'burping' became obviously not right. A friend's mum didn't know until she got taken into hospital fearing appendicitis and was told the good news was she wasn't ill but was in the middle of labour!

Lots of women don't look very pregnant - I've met so many women who complain no-one offers them seats on trains and I look at them and they just don't look pregnant, especially to people who have only really noticed stereotypical bumps on telly.

how can pregnancy tests be negative when you are pregnant? every pregnant woman makes HCG for the test to pick up, I don't get it?

A friend of mine didn't know until 26 weeks. She has pcos so doesn't have regular periods and is a bit overweight so didn't notice a bump. She got the shock of her life when she found out.

Not all babies are active either. I hardly ever felt my eldest move, I had to be in the right position to feel it. I also had a small bump until the last few weeks and many people though I'd just put a bit of weight on until I told them.

I think regular pregnancy tests like you buy in boots only work in the first weeks due to what hormones are released, I think say first 12 weeks. So if you don't suspect first 12 weeks and took home test at say 15 weeks it could come up as negative.

babykon for early testing the issue is the picking up the hcg which will only start being produced after implantation. And that can take weeks even.
I think (mind you, I'm not sure) that negative tests after a certain point - 12 or 16 weeks or such - is because the hcg levels are too high to be discerned by the normal tests' range. So you need a blood test instead. Would be good an obstetrician/gynaecologist type person on MN could confirm if the latter is right?

Never leaked milk in pregnancy myself (and had oversupply when it eventually came in first time round).

spiderlight

I knew from about 4 weeks as felt dreadful, I had a friend who claimed not to know until she was 4-5 months gone but she did have a faily good early pregnancy.

This thread is lovely

fairly good early pregnancy.

Lego - that's the thread I was thinking of!

It is possible.
I don't understand how but I know someone who was admitted to hospital with tummy pains and turned out to be labour pains. I was . How did you not realise?

But, look how many women POAS every month thinking they are pregnant, surely the brain can work the opposite way?

I've never leaked milk at any stage of pregnancy.

I think its very possible not to know. With dd3 I had almost no bump, it really just looked like I had a big dinner, no sickness, no cravings, and there was very little movement from her which resulted in lots of cold water and hospital traces and doppler checks.