surprise

I've started looking for books and resources that address unplanned pregnancy when a woman has chosen to carry the child to full term. Surprise Child: Finding Hope in Unexpected Pregnancy is the first that I've read. The author shares her own story of two unplanned pregnancy intermixed with the stories of other women she interviewed.

The book does a wonderful job of giving the reader a virtual community of women going through an unexpected pregnancy. Each chapter addresses a month of pregnancy through the different women's experiences and the feelings it evoked in them. Each phase has its own mix of emotions as well as choices to be made.

In the Readers' Guides at the back of the book I found the more pragmatic and applicable material that I was really interested in. Here, the author poses questions to help a pregnant woman, singly or with her partner, to process emotions, make plans, recognize changes and make choices. Some of the question topics that stood out for me: feelings when your chances of a miscarriage lessen, facing your grief & resentment, recognizing a redirection of your life & redefining success for yourself, what kind of mother do you want to be & what can you or are you doing to be that.

Book details: Fields, Leslie Leyland. Surprise Child: Finding Hope in Unexpected Pregnancy. Colorado Springs: WaterBrook Press. 2006
Book website: http://www.surprisechild.com/
Learn about the author: http://www.leslie-leyland-fields.com/