How do you not know you are 9 months pregnant? (pain, blood pressure, doctor)

[Woof Woof Woof!]

Please tell me how a woman can deliver a "surprise" baby.

Mich. man helps deliver wife's surprise baby - Boston.com

[BlueyedCat]

I have no idea. I looked like the Goodyear Blimp with both of my boys. There was no mistake that I was pregnant!

[gardener34]

There is NO WAY you can not know unless you are mentally deficient in some way. What about the kicks, constantly. And the rolling sensations?

[SCGranny]

Short answer - the mother-to-be is either a complete moron, chemically compromised, mentally unstable, or a liar trying to hide the fact.

We (on EMS) actually delivered a baby from a woman who swore that she wasn't pregnant. She was very obese and didn't want anyone to know she was having sex with a certain partner...

[MidwesternBookWorm]

Years ago, I worked with a woman who did not realize she was pregnant until 8 days before her son was born.

She was a very, very large woman to start with, which can hide a lot of baby. She had no other children, so did not have prior experience with the sensation of kicks and rolls. She said that her cycles had always been extremely irregular, and apparently she continued to have breakthrough bleeding during the pregnancy, which she thought was her usual irregular menstrual periods. She had gone to her doctor for her regular annual exam, and was flabbergasted when he announced that she was expecting.

She was actually only 8 months along when she learned the news, but due to high blood pressure, they had to do an early C-section, 8 days after she found out she was going to be a mother. Amazingly enough, her son was born healthy and never developed any complications as a result of his mother's lack of prenatal care.

My boss at the time dropped probably the best unintentional pun that I've ever heard when the news was announced. He had been out of town when the initial announcement was made, so hadn't heard about it, and happened to be in my office when I mentioned that the woman had called to say she was being admitted for a C-section the next morning. He looked shocked and said "So-and-so is pregnant?? I can't even conceive of that!"

[DreamWeavin]

Bravo!! I applaud you and your honesty. People don't want to hear it; but holy ****-how the hell can a woman not know she's pregnant?? She's incapable of caring for a child if she is so friggen out of touch with reality that she doesn't know she is about to have a child. And I don't want to hear their excuses.
Enough said.

Originally Posted by SCGranny

Short answer - the mother-to-be is either a complete moron, chemically compromised, mentally unstable, or a liar trying to hide the fact.

We (on EMS) actually delivered a baby from a woman who swore that she wasn't pregnant. She was very obese and didn't want anyone to know she was having sex with a certain partner...

[trustmeiknow]

There was a show on a week or so ago on TLC maybe? that was all about women who didn't know they were pregnant. A couple of them were fine until they went to the bathroom at work, felt the pain then, and oops! a baby fell into the toilet!

Some of these girls supposedly were very skinny the whole time; I remember one was 109 pounds.

It doesn't make sense to me, either.

[Woof Woof Woof!]

I think it happens to people who are completely out of touch with their bodies. Very obese people do not like to feel their bodies, and fat can hide a lot of baby. A skinny person would have to be in denial. How can you not feel a baby tossing and turning inside? In all cases, something is WRONG with the mother, has to be.

[North Beach Person]

I went to high school with a skinny girl who claimed that the growth in her stomach was a tumor up until the day she had the baby. Her parents bought into it, at least publicly. Quite a scandal as her family was very religious (obnoxiously so) and the father was the son of a local college professor. This was in 1972.

[subsound]

Denial and self delusion are fantastically versatile things.