©Pregnancy bliss 2008
Concealed Pregnancy
Concealed pregnancy is, in many ways, the unspoken and unacknowledged human tragedy that appears to have no potential solution in sight. It is a problem that feeds from the myriad cultural and religious complexities of this world. It is, however, worth remembering that, at its basic level, it affects individual women who would be someone’s daughter, mother and sister. It affects real people.
v Historically and to this day in many parts of the world, concealment of a pregnancy was prompted by the harsh consequences of conceiving while still unwed. There was the social stigma of being an unwed mother and in some cases being ostracised. Whilst this has largely disappeared in many parts of the western world, pockets of this remain in some communities. Sometimes the concealment is actively pursued to buy time to terminate the pregnancy before it become apparent to others. This is particularly significant in many developing countries where safe pregnancy termination services remain unavailable. Even in some western countries, this is a live issue as exemplified by a study in Ireland (where abortion is illegal) reported in 2006 which showed that the problem remains with the chief reason being the expected disapproval by the immediate family when pregnancy is conceived in unconventional circumstances.
v Concealment may be related to Child Protection Issues. This is when a mother has been identified by Social Services to be potentially unfit to look after a child, usually on the basis of what had transpired previously with other older children. The mother may then opt to actively conceal a pregnancy to offset the possibility of having the expected child being taken away from her.
v Denial of Pregnancy: This is rather different from classic pregnancy concealment. Here the woman refuses to accept the reality of the pregnancy, both to her and the society at large. She therefore refuses to make any appropriate adjustment or preparations and in effect wishes it away. This is usually born of the deep fear of the consequences of the pregnancy which she perceives to be horrific and unimaginable.
Consequences of Pregnancy Concealment
In those countries where safe pregnancy termination services are unavailable, pregnancy
concealment continues to take a heavy toll in the form of thousands of lives lost
and countless other, usually young women, permanently maimed in the process of procuring
illegal back-
In the United States, abortion remains an extremely emotive and divisive issue. In many other countries, it is an unspoken source of pain and grief.