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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To wonder how someone can not know that they are pregnant?

139 replies

Eemamc · 30/04/2018 20:45

Worcester woman gave birth without knowing she was pregnant www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-43956316

I used to wonder about this, but having had a baby last year, I don’t know how you couldn’t know? Maybe if you gave birth at 20 Weeks or near that possibly, but after that?

OP posts:

UterusUterusGhali · 01/05/2018 12:58

I've known it happen a few times. In a handful of cases there were mental health issues at play.
I've seen it in women who thought they'd gone through the menopause and didn't realise until very late and very young girls who didn't know what was happening.

One sticks in my mind because she'd had lots of negative tests and was being seen by the GP for abdominal swelling etc. She presented at A&E in labour with abdo pains. She was so lovely and chipper about the whole thing. Probably shock! I think of her often. :)

IHopeYouStepOnALegoPiece · 01/05/2018 13:01

Friend of ours knew she was pregnant as she had fertility treatment but barely gained any weight, no morning sickness or other symptoms, very few movements (could’ve easily been gas she says). If she didn’t have 100% proof with scans, she said she would’ve thought that positive pregnancy test was a dodgy test and she wasn’t pregnant.

Her second was a different story 😏

Kenworthington · 01/05/2018 13:05

I got chatting to a woman at the nail bar the other day who said she didn’t find out she was pg til I think she said 8 months. She’d been having fake periods throughout as she was on the pill, she’d taken tests at the doctor. In the end she was sent for a scan at the hospital as they were worried it was maybe a tumour and the radiologist said he couldn’t see anything there ‘apart from the baby’ the baby’s she didn’t know she was having!!?! Imagine the shock! Apparently she gave birth only a few weeks later. She said because she was overweight she didn’t really look any different and her ‘padding’ meant she didn’t feel any kicks

coffeeX10 · 01/05/2018 13:06

Sorry not read all the replies so i could be repeating others here. I am currently 27w with my second, i am huge so no doubt im pregnant plus the horrendous sickness - however i have anterior placenta and i barely feel her move. And her kicks dont feel like they did with my DD - they could honestly be passed as gas sometimes, i have to really concentrate to feel her.
So i suppose if you had anterior placenta and were blessed without growing at the rate i am then maybe it would be possible to know.
YANBU though as i had thought it when pregnant with DD1.

whycantIthinkofadecentusername · 01/05/2018 13:08

I don’t have any pictures but I didn’t know until I was 24 weeks. No “symptoms” regular periods still etc. It was a blood test looking for something else that picked it up. No visible bump at 40 weeks either, just looked pudgy. I used to look at other women with their gorgeous bumps and feel jealous. Turned out the little sod was over 12lbs and lying completely on my back.

Eatalot · 01/05/2018 13:54

Whats the point of this thread? Seems goady. There are multiple cases of this happening and yes normal pregnancies have symptons a b c but not everything presents a typical. Arw you suggesting these girls are lying or is this a thread to fat shame the overweight and pregnant. Odd.

TheOriginalEmu · 01/05/2018 15:25

lookingforspace
I never HAD those movements you describe. Even during two later pregnancies I knew about. They just didn’t happen to me.
I don’t lie on my tummy as a rule and I never had an especially hard tummy any time, I’m not obese but a chunky size 16. I never had a bump.
Again, is it really so hard to understand that everyone experiences it differently?
And I don’t have SN nor am I traumatised.

Sirrah · 01/05/2018 15:29

It was explained on TV this morning, the placenta was at the front, which masked the movements of the baby. Some women have bleeding during pregnancy too. Every pregnancy is different!

Sirrah · 01/05/2018 15:32

Another thing, my MIL had no idea she was pregnant until she was 34+ weeks. She was nearly 40, and thought she was going through menopause.

OutrageousFlavourLikeFreesias · 01/05/2018 15:53

I know two women who have had this experience. The first thought she might be pregnant, went to see her GP and he told her she wasn't, and her periods had stopped because she'd been dieting. She found out he was wrong when she went into labour with her full-term baby.

Second friend carried her baby very neatly, knew she was gaining weight but thought she was just eating too much. She went to see her doctor about her weight gain, who examined her from head to toe, still didn't spot that she was pregnant and said it was nothing to worry about. Again, she found out she was expecting when she went into labour.

Both women have since had (planned) second babies and have said themselves they don't know how they could not have realised the first time. But they didn't, the medical professionals who saw them didn't and their first children were both (lovely) surprises.

4GreenApples · 01/05/2018 16:43

However, it’s those huge body roll movements that happen later on where a great big bum will be a hard lump at one side and move all the way across to the other. These are the movements that I’m stunned women don’t notice.

Not everyone gets movements like those. I didn’t, and I knew I was pregnant so was watching for baby movements.

Haven’t slept on my front since I was a child either.

toomuchtooold · 01/05/2018 17:17

DD1 wasn't very active and her head was down from early on. I could have been forgiven for not noticing her, but DD2 floating above her and kicking me in the ribs the whole time sort of gave it away

BottleBeach · 01/05/2018 17:40

This thread has totally freaked me out. My very new boyfriend and I were a bit careless a couple of months ago, and over the past few weeks I have been feeling really bloated, and burping loads just like i did early in my pregnancy with DS1. But I’ve been feeling safe in the knowledge I’ve had my period so can’t possibly be pregnant. I’m going out to buy a test right now.

paranoidpammywhammy2 · 01/05/2018 22:18

Lookingforspace

I never felt any of those movements. I felt a bit of gas and heart burn which could have been gas and heart burn. I sleep on my side (breasts have meant I can't sleep on my front since a teenager) and I had very strong abdominal muscles. They struggled to position the fetal heart monitor at my appointments. They would get trainees to come and have a go (and struggle for ages) I was exactly right weight too.

I knew I was pregnant but my body really didn't show. I probably had people believe I was making it all up although their comments made me worry that I wasn't looking bigger! I had one comment about looking a bit 'stocky'!

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