Anywhere you look on social media, you’ll surely find someone’s elaborate public pregnancy announcement, or joyous video revealing the news to loved ones. While this is pretty common for couples who planned to become pregnant, the approach for announcing an unplanned pregnancy may feel less certain. Unplanned pregnancies often come with unknowns that may affect how, when and even if you decide to share the news with others.
Here are a few factors that may impact your approach…
Your Relationships
The most important relationship to consider is the one you have with the baby’s father. Is the relationship supportive and safe or rocky and potentially volatile? If you’re in a great relationship, let the baby’s father know early. You may find he’s thrilled to enter this new stage with you. If the relationship isn’t so great, you may want to hold off until you have support from others, and then carefully consider the best time and place to let him know.
The quality of your relationships with family and friends may also shape how you share the news. An unplanned pregnancy can be quite a shock to those around you, especially if you’re particularly young or they’re not big fans of the baby’s father. While it’s true that your pregnancy impacts you and your baby way more than anyone else, allow friends and family a little time to adjust, if necessary. In time, they’ll likely come to embrace and support your pregnancy. Better yet, if your bonds with family and friends are loving and strong to begin with, perhaps they’ll be on board from the start.
Your Pregnancy Plan
How you choose to proceed with the pregnancy is a major factor in how and if you choose to announce it to others. If your initial reaction is to consider an abortion, then it’s probably wise to share that news only with the people who love you the most. It’s a decision with life-long impacts, and it’s natural to seek advice from those you trust. It can also help to talk with an unplanned pregnancy counselor to properly consider all the pros, cons and options.
If you plan to raise your baby, you have far more leeway to share the news with a broader group of people. In fact, scream it from the mountaintops…or at least on Insta! Bringing a new life into the world is a joyous occasion meant to be celebrated.
If you’re thinking about placing your baby with a loving family through adoption, you’re likely somewhere in the middle. Some birth mothers feel comfortable sharing their pregnancy journey publicly, while others prefer to keep it fairly private, limiting the news to a circle of close friends, immediate family and perhaps the adoptive family. There is no wrong answer in this scenario.
Your Own Preferences
In the end, deciding how to announce an unplanned pregnancy comes down to determining what you feel is the best path for getting the support you need. Whether you tell two people, ten people or a thousand, in the end, it’s still you and your baby who are truly in this together. You can’t go wrong if you do what feels genuinely right.
At Sira in Gainesville, we help women get the support and resources they need to navigate the challenges and joys that come with an unplanned pregnancy. Our counselors are here to listen to your needs, answer your questions and serve as your advocate during this journey.
Contact Sira today at 352-377-4947 to learn more about how we can help.