I am 33 weeks pregnant and my mother is trying to force me to give my baby away. The baby's father is out of the picture - he lives abroad. I have two daughters who are 7 and 5 from my marriage and they see a lot of their dad and he and I get on ok - so we are doing everything we can to make their lives as happy as possible.
At first I will admit that I didn't want to have this baby and felt very confused about the whole thing. But as the pregnancy has gone on, I have come to realise that I think it's the right thing for me to keep the child and actually at the moment the thought of someone taking it away makes me quite angry.
The things my mother has said about it are awful and she says she won't support me if I keep it - she talks about it as if it isn't even a person and gets angry if I buy anything for it. But giving the child away isn't an option for me now.
I have tried from the beginning to do what I can live with. I know the situation isn't ideal, but I have tried to make decisions which won't be another hit on my mental health or upset my children further. After being very ill, I have managed to successfully rebuild the relationship I had with my daughters and they trust me again.
Why won't my mother understand? She says I shouldn't be able to keep the baby just because I want to. I can't help my feelings - surely it is natural for me to want to keep my own child.
Her reasons for why I should give the child away include;
She doesn't want to have to help me out with it.
My older dd has special needs and is upset by the pregnancy (I think we will be able to deal with this though)
I am 'not very maternal' (in her opinion)
I will not be able to do anything with my life for the next 5 years (I don't agree with this).
Sorry......I just needed to vent this somewhere as I'm feeling sad about it. Particularly as the baby isn't growing very well and I am having to go for a lot of scans at the moment. I feel as though I'm the only one who cares about it