Never had a pregnancy scare

[Mushroo]

Reading a lot of threads on here it seems a lot of babies are unplanned or surprise babies.

Despite having sex for about 15 years now, I’ve never had a scare. (Used a mixture of the pill and condoms - not both at the same time!).

Am i unusual in that I’ve never had a scare?

Are all these unplanned / surprise babies actually contraceptive failures, or people just not using any contraception in the heat of the moment?

(If anyone is like me, did you go on to conceive when you tried? It’s starting to worry me!)

Curious as to what people mean by ‘surprise’ babies

Many years ago, I anaesthetised a woman in her twenties for a repeat sterilisation. She had 5 children. One was a split condom, one was a pill failure (diarrhoea and vomiting) one was a pregnancy with a coil in situ, one was actually planned, and the final one was a failed previous sterilisation (I think they got the round ligament instead of fallopian tube)
None of us in theatre were taking any bets that her latest procedure would stop her relentless fertility either!

Yep . ^ this

If you use contraception as it is meant to be used your chances of a surprise pregnancy are phenomenally unlikely.. and yet my neighbours daughter managed this feet 3 times .. remarkable .. 🤥

I never wanted children and I've never had a pregnancy scare. I'm 54 now so the chances of having one now is impossible.

If you're basing it on what you've read on mumsnet then I think a lot of people will just lie and say contraception failure instead of 'I didn't use any at all' as they know they'll get vilified on here and then won't get the advice they need because people will be too busy giving them a lecture

Had frequent sex from 16 to the menopause. Used contraception, no pregnancy scares and no trouble conceiving when I chose to have children.
But I was always very meticulous about contraception and followed all the rules about its use. I really didn’t want to get pregnant for over a decade, so I put a lot of thought into it whilst having a lot of sex.

Stupidly didn't use contraception after my child was born. Needed IVF as OH has a ridiculously low sperm count and I have endo. Was told we had more chance of multiple lottery wins than pregnancy.

7 years later, had sex once one month, what would usually be a good week after ovulation. Pregnant 🤦‍♀️

Oh, that sounds sad. I’m still having sex, but now in my 60s, pregnancy isn’t a concern.

Yes a lot of time, surprises end up being not planned pregnancies but not being very careful anyway pregnancies (barring some). You've obviously just been very safe

Never had a pregnancy scare. I’ve had times where I’ve forgotten to take a pill, so have just not had sex, or used a condom. I have 3 DC, all planned, none of them took particularly long to conceive, so obviously it’s not definitive, but it’s not an indicator that you won’t get pregnant when you try.

I’ve only got pregnant when properly trying - 4 times, very easily (very lucky).

I was on the combined pill from being 14yo and with my DH from 16yo. Never had a pregnancy scare and conceived DS1 and DS2 on the second and first cycles respectively.

I do also know of at least one person who fell pregnant twice whilst on the contraceptive implant and then on the depo shot. Obviously it just didn't agree with her. And I know at least one other person who fell pregnant on the coil.

It's just luck of the draw really. No form of contraceptive is 100% effective (for lots of reasons) and someone has to be the statistic.

I got pregnant on the implant so contraceptive failures really do happen, but I do think some people maybe aren't totally honest about using their contraception 100% reliably too. Because of my experience with the implant I suppose you could say I've had pregnancy scares since then because I don't fully trust contraception now and there have been a couple of times when my period is late (its always been irregular) and I feel off in myself so I've panicked and done a test, even though I knew it was unlikely and actually the stress of overthinking might have made my period later than what it would have been.

Been having sex for 20 years, have always used contraception but on the 1 single occasion that we got ridiculously carried away I got pregnant.

(Worries me that I must be horribly fertile since it can take some people months or years to trying to get there.)

So you can purposely avoid it and succeed but then be veeeery ready for a baby on that one incident you don't 🤦‍♀️

IIRC, something like 40% of living population in Britain are result of unplanned pregnancy.
These threads usually degenerate into sneering at people who have unplanned pregnancy.
That's 40% of the population whose parents you are insulting.
Not very nice.

I was incredibly promiscuous, have had multiple sexual partners and lots of sex. Never had a pregnancy scare or unplanned pregnancy. I fell pregnant both times of trying with my kids. Also never had an sti. I think it's luck to be honest.

I used the pill. Never had a scare (did use MAP a couple of times) and had 4 healthy (planned) babies.

These answers are very interesting, and in the main reassuring!

it seems that I’m not alone and in many cases surprise pregnancies have resulted from forgetting a pill or just not using anything.

It’s also interesting from a few users of the coil / implant also got pregnant in completely true contraceptive failure. It’s fascinating how there seems to be some people who are genuinely super fertile. I wonder if science knows the reason behind it.