Pregnancy Over 40 vs. Pregnancy In Your 20's
I teach at my local community college and my students' ages range from 16 to well over 50 (and even 60!)But last summer I had something interesting come up. One of my younger students missed a few classes and emailed me that she was pregnant and very upset. She told me that she was going to try to pull herself together enough to start attending class and she had made a decision that she was going to keep the baby. I was really take off-guard.
_____________
SEE ALSO: PREGNANCY OVER 40 - MY EXPERIENCE (getpregnantover40.com)
_____________
I dealt with infertility for so many years that I forgot that the vast majority of women (especially younger women) spend most of their reproductive years trying to avoid pregnancy. Statistically speaking, half of all pregnancies are unplanned (that includes older women too!) I'm sure many of those pregnancies are met with panic, sadness and even termination. I think those of us who've stuggled with infertility and miscarriage have a hard time understanding the plight of those fertile women who get pregnant by accident.
For me, I try to remember what it would have been like to get pregnant while I was in college. That really would have been a crisis. The last thing I wanted back then was a baby! I had such a distorted view of family and parenting. It truly was a blessing that I didn't get pregnant until I was in my 40's. I had plenty of time to get my priorities straight and plenty of time to confront my less-than-perfect childhood. Oh what a difference 20 years can make! I think back to the clueless and sometimes misguided young woman I was in high school and college. In retrospect, I'm glad I had every one of those 20 years to get my act together. Maybe my daughter waited on purpose to come down and start her life with us. Perhaps she had the wisdom I didn't.
