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Pregnancy Scares, Kits, and Kids
Cara and I met for lunch, and as soon as I stepped in and saw her pale face and red eyes, I knew something was wrong. Something more catastrophic than a broken fingernail! My gaze drifted on the brown paper bag beside her. I asked what's inside the bag. She smiled, a little bravely and dropped a bomb. "I think I maybe pregnant." The prognosis looked bad. She was five days late, and she added a bit hysterically, she was never late. She was dizzy all the time. She has been throwing up every morning. Of course, the stress could have just caused the delay and the dizziness and the vomiting, well, maybe it was just psychosomatic. All in the mind. After half an hour of coaxing, I managed to get her to take the test. Looking back, people must have thought, we were two crazies, hanging out in the rest room, whispering like two drug dealers when all were, was nervously waiting for the results. It had two stripes. Positive. She was pregnant. I swear, I saw her life passed before my face. She was pregnant, working as a teacher in a private institution, living with her parents and the baby's father was a big mistake she does not care to repeat. Cara's near faint, made me pray to God, dedicated our lives to His service, hoping we were wrong. It also made me look at the instructions. Again. Just like that, my prayers were answered. Two stripes meant negative and one stripe meant positive. In our haste and stupidity and nervousness, we did not bother reading the instructions too clearly. She wasn't pregnant after all. After we finished jumping for joy and hollering like banshees, I was treated to the biggest Hungarian sausage, whether that was in deference to the male organ or what, I do not know but it got me into thinking. Women, whether single or married suffer pregnancy scares plenty of times, and each experience is always like the first time. Okay, so maybe that doesn't happen everyday, but chances are you either have had or will have "the scare" at some point in your life. In our parent's generation, pregnancy was the biggest concern of having sex. In our generation, our biggest concern is getting STD/AIDS AND getting pregnant at the same time. How's that for double whammy? I read a manual on sex education once, which imparted an advice on pregnancy scares. First of all, you need to calm down, take a deep breath. Hard to believe, but you have lots of options to choose from. Panicking can actually make things worse. Stress can alter your period cycle sometimes making you even later than you already are. And if you've been there, you know that you are praying for that period to come. No need to make it later than it already is. Up until a few years ago there was really nothing you could do but wait. Jumping up and down to try and drag that semen out of there doesn't work and douching doesn't do any good either. Home pregnancy tests can tell you if you are pregnant, but they are only good 7-10 days after the time of conception (sex). There's no use wasting one of those tests unless the unprotected sex happened at least a week ago.
In a study done by Drs. Cabaraban and Morales (FHI, 1998), forty six percent on a total 1,650 respondents residing in Cagayan and Bukidnon, experienced unwanted pregnancy at some time in their lives and they too, were faced with the dilemma of continuing or terminating the pregnancy. For whatever reasons they decided to push through or cancel the pregnancy is not my place or style to judge and comment upon. If it's negative, depending upon your situation and how you feel about kids, it might be good and bad news. If women are not ready for kids, there are many safe and responsible contraceptive method they can use (rhythm, abstinence, condoms, pills or whatever else that catches your fancy) When you're biological clock is ticking, and you want to have kids, hey, you can always try and try again. One very motivated swimmer is bound to bag the prize sooner or later. Funny though, how longanisa and other sausages get me intellectually stimulated. ---------------
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