When Your Pregnancy Is Unplanned

Sarah* pushed the door into our office, unsure what to expect. “I was so scared,” she remembered, “I just felt so alone. Like I was drowning in the situation that was so much bigger than me.”
Sarah was 23-years old and in the final year of her Bachelor of Business Administration when she discovered she was pregnant. Sarah wasn’t expecting it. She met *Josh at a campus party and sparks flew. It wasn’t long before she told her best friend that she was in love.
Every spare moment, they were together. They dreamed about their future together. The countries they’d travel to, the experiences they’d have, the house they’d buy when they were ready to ‘settle down’. Josh was firmly stamped into every dream she held for her future. Their future.
Everything was working out.

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And then…

Sarah began to fall asleep on the couch at 7:30pm, putting her sudden exhaustion down to ‘exam stress’. She thought she’d caught gastro when the nausea hit, driving her to the bathroom on a regular basis. Something was off. Then it hit her… She was late. She was never late. When the doctor confirmed her pregnancy, Sarah’s world turned upside down.

“I was terrified. We’d made all these plans for our life together, but none of them included this. I didn’t know what to do. The doctor was nice and said I had options but I couldn’t process anything she was saying. I was in total shock.”

Sarah decided not to say anything to Josh. “It was early days and the doctor had said that up to half of all pregnancies end in a natural miscarriage. Part of me hoped that would happen.” After several weeks with no sign of miscarriage, Sarah told Josh.

“He was so shocked at first. While we knew there was always a chance of this, we just never expected it would happen. I’d missed one pill and didn’t think anything of it. Josh felt it was the wrong time. I still had a year of Uni, and he was in the middle of his final exams. It felt like the pregnancy was going to derail all of our plans.”

They spent some time talking it through, trying to make sense of this new situation. Eventually, the time came for Sarah to return to the doctor for more blood tests. This time, they went together. The doctor suggested they speak to a pregnancy centre who provides support for people in this situation. A week later, Josh took Sarah’s trembling hand as she reached for the door at Diamond Women’s Support. They were both nervous, but knew they needed to reach out for help.

“We hadn’t told anybody yet. It felt like something we needed to do alone. We felt a little ashamed we’d let this happen.” Josh said.

“The office was warm and inviting, and everybody was so friendly. I felt at ease, the moment I walked in the door,” Sarah reflected. “Then I met *Susan. She was so lovely and kind. She introduced us to a counsellor who helped us talk through our options. I’d heard about abortions – both positive and very negative stories that terrified me.”

“Our counsellor gave us plenty of information and made us feel like we weren’t dealing with this alone. She told us not to rush things, but to give ourselves time to learn more and really think this through before deciding,” Sarah said. “We leaned towards abortion because we agreed this was not a great time with Uni and everything.”

“We ended up having several appointments with our counsellor before we made our choice. The team at Diamond Women’s Support could not have been better. We felt so safe to talk about our biggest fears and not judged when we considered abortion. They were like a family that just came around us and loved us no matter what. They gave us the information to make the best choice for us. We didn’t feel rushed or pressured – just supported and accepted.”

“If you’re in that situation – if you’re pregnant and didn’t plan on it, like us, don’t walk through that alone. Diamond Women’s Support have access to all the resources you need to make your decision and are the nicest, most caring people,” said Sarah.

“Honestly, we would have been lost without them. They were amazing!” added Josh.

*Names have been changed to protect identity