Unplanned pregnancies always come as a shock, and prospective mothers take to the revelation in different ways – some are overjoyed, others anxious, and almost everyone is left at a loss.
There might not be anyone who understands precisely what you’re going through, but reading what other mothers have to say could leave you feeling a little less lonely in this situation.
An unplanned pregnancy, no matter how you handle it, will leave an indelible mark on your character. You’ll feel overwhelmed and lost, but you aren’t alone. You might have to make tough choices, but there aren’t any wrong decisions – trust your gut and don’t look back.
How you choose to handle this unplanned pregnancy is your choice alone. All we want to do here is equip you with perspective from others who’d been through similar. May you find comfort and consolation in what they have to share.
Unplanned Pregnancy Quotes for Expecting Moms
Quotes For Expecting Moms Who Feel Overwhelmed
It’s no exaggeration to say pregnancy can uproot a person’s life. You might have to cut your work hours – in some cases, pregnancy might demand you drop your job entirely. It skews your hormone balance as well, leaving you to cope with emotions you weren’t even expecting to handle!
We promise you that these feelings will pass. It might take a few minutes, a few hours, or even a few days – but all of these things weighing your thoughts down will pass in time.
It’s only overwhelming at the moment. What matters now is how well you endure the tempest. Focus on making it to the other side first – take it one step at a time if you must. Just keep walking.
- “Coping with my unplanned pregnancy lent me both compassion and perspective. Through all of our experiences in life, there is something to learn.” – Claire Fulmer
- “We have a secret in our culture, and it’s not that birth is painful – it’s that women are strong.” – Laura Stavoe Harm
- “I’m not telling you it is going to be easy. I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it.” – Art Williams
- “Coping with my unplanned pregnancy lent me both compassion and perspective. Through all of our experiences in life, there is something to learn.” – Claire Fulmer
- “The changes that your body goes through while pregnant are beautiful, yet they can also be daunting. As your body changes, it is easy to feel that fat or uncomfortable in your own skin. However, when you are holding your precious little baby in your arms it makes it all worth it.” – Unknown
- “All pregnant women are warriors. It takes strength just to get up and go to work.” – Camilla Luddington
- “Birth is not only about making babies. Birth is about making mothers – strong, competent, capable mothers who trust themselves and know their inner strength.” – Barbara Katz Rothman
- The most important thing she’d learned over the years was that there was no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one.” – Jill Churchill
The road forward will be hard at the best of times. At the worst, you might feel completely alone with only the bump in your belly for company. It’s easy to resent things in your frustration.
You are allowed to be upset – you are allowed to feel your own sadness. It’s like a roller coaster ride, in that way. It takes guts to ride when you’re scared. But it also takes guts to recognize you can’t do something, even if you have to go against the people you’re with to do so.
No matter what choice you make, you’re being so very brave right now. Keep moving forward, since momentum matters more than direction at this stage. Sort the rest out when you’re ready, but until that point put every effort you can towards reaching that!
Quotes For Expecting Moms Who Find Themselves Lost
Pregnancy is scary for a lot of women – not just due to physical constraints. It becomes a part of their identity, and it can get so big they become mothers first, everything else second. It’s terrifying to have something new and unexpected take precedence over everything you worked towards.
There’s more to a mother than the organs they have or the children they birthed. There’s more to them than a caregiver or household manager. Every mother was a woman first, and every woman needs to remind themselves of their own dreams from time to time.
Motherhood demands a lot of time, attention, and responsibility. It does NOT force you to lose yourself to that purpose. As much as possible, try to integrate motherhood into your life.
You should never strive to be “just” a mother – in fact, there’s no such thing. Motherhood adds to who you are – it should never take away anything about you. What you surrender in pursuit of motherhood is stolen away from your children. They deserve all of you here, okay?
- “In giving birth to our babies, we may find that we give birth to new possibilities within ourselves.” – Myla and Jon Kabat-Zinn
- “Everything grows rounder and wider and weirder, and I sit here in the middle of it all and wonder who in the world you will turn out to be.” – Carrie Fisher
- “We can’t understand when we’re pregnant, or when our siblings are expecting, how profound it is to have a shared history with a younger generation: blood, genes, humor. It means we were actually here, on Earth, for a time – like the Egyptians with their pyramids, only with children.” – Anne Lamott
- “Being a mother is not about what you gave up to have a child, but what you’ve gained from having one…” – Sunny Gupta
- “A mother’s joy begins when new life is stirring inside… when a tiny heartbeat is heard for the very first time, and a playful kick reminds her that she is never alone.” – Unknown
- “Life is very fluid, but the choices you make during this time, at this place – are forever.” – Madeleine Meicher
- “Pregnancy can be a time when you take tremendous pleasure in eating, not only because you may enjoy food more but also because you know that it is nourishing both you and your baby.” – Martha Rose and Jane L. Davis
Quotes For Expecting Moms Who’re Pondering On Difficult Choices
It’s a sad part of reality that not everyone who would be a mother is equipped to handle the task. This could be due to an abundance of different factors, but forcing motherhood on someone not prepared for it will only harm both mother and child.
In these cases, other alternatives may be worth considering. These won’t always be socially acceptable – in fact, people in your own social circles might judge or even condemn you for it.
But it still remains your choice, no matter what.
It takes bravery to step up and take care of an unplanned child, but it also takes bravery to recognize if you aren’t in a position to accomplish that – or that someone else might be.
Pay no mind to people insisting otherwise. They might be judging you for fair reasons, but even if that were the case their own context will be far removed from yours. You can take their input into account, but don’t let anyone pressure you into a choice you didn’t want for yourself.
Turning Your Child Over
The idea of leaving your child to someone else’s care is heartbreaking for some mothers, but as they say, “If you love someone, let them go.”. Your child deserves the best life available, and sometimes that won’t be with you.
You might not have enough time, money, or even the capability to accommodate your baby at this point in your life. There’s nothing wrong with recognizing unacceptable limitations.
Giving your child away for adoption doesn’t mean you don’t care for them. It does not make you a bad person – don’t let shame dissuade you from making an objective choice.
Another family might be ready to usher your child into a wonderful new life. If you can’t handle motherhood as you are, but know someone who could, why not grant them the privilege?
- “There are two different kinds of strength. There’s the strength to make a parenting plan and then there’s the strength to give that plan to another.” – Unknown
- “He is mine in a way that he will never be hers, yet he is hers in a way that he will never be mine, and so together, we are motherhood.” – Desha Woodall
- “If a mother and father can love more than one child then why is it so hard to understand that a child can love more than one mother and father?” – Unknown
Abortion
Being able to take care of your child is a blessing. Having people around you capable of doing so is a wonderful blessing as well, but sadly not everyone has such good fortune.
In these circumstances, it’s more than fair to look into abortive means at your disposal. You want the best for your child, so wouldn’t birthing them in a world incapable of granting that be cruel?
Abortion is never a pleasant topic to discuss, and people dealing with unplanned pregnancies tend to have this option flitting through the back of their minds. Children deserve to have a good, loving life, but not every birth leads to that outcome.
And some women make that choice. It’s not an easy decision to make, but they decided it was the best option for their cases. No one should decide for them – or for you, for that matter. If you decide that course of action is necessary, by all means, trust your judgment.
Motherhood is a choice – not a burden, not an obligation, and certainly not a punishment.
- “No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother.” – Margaret Sanger
- “Worse than aborting is birthing in instability.” – Abhijit Naskar
- “Morality becomes hypocrisy if it means accepting mother’s suffering or dying in connection with unwanted pregnancies and illegal abortions and unwanted children.” – Gro Harlem Brundtland
Final Thoughts
Unplanned pregnancies can leave incoming mothers dazed and utterly isolated, but you’re not dealing with this alone. Hundreds of thousands of others go through what you’re dealing with, and they’re more than willing to comfort you with their words and wisdom.
