A day that she will not forget. In England, Megan Isherwood, a 26 -year -old woman was transported to the emergency room in a state of discomfort and pain that could evoke appendicitis. But there, the exams showed everything else: Megan was giving birth.
Bloody pains and vomiting
On September 9, around 4 p.m., Megan woke up with a nauseous nap with pain on the right side of the abdomen. She asks a friend present to bring her a sweet drink because she feels weak.
But her friend is worried: she knows that Megan has a high pain threshold and that this is not normal. Especially since Megan then begins to vomit … blood. The emergency services dispatched on the spot envisage a possible appendicitis, the young woman is therefore naturally oriented towards a scanner and an ultrasound upon arrival at the Blackpool hospital. No inflammation of the appendix is to be noted … On the other hand, a small head and a small foot are clearly visible in the image. Without knowing it, Megan is about to give birth.
A 2 kg baby passed incognito, arrived in advance
Megan declares today in several British media:
“I was speechless. I couldn’t believe what had just happened. I had no bumps, no symptoms, he appeared as if by magic.”
Megan does not have time to breathe that it is already time to push. Jackson was born at 33 weeks before term. A few minutes after his birth, he became blue and stops breathing. Fortunately, doctors manage to bring him back to life, before mother and children were placed in dedicated care units. Megan is still shocked.
“I was struggling to understand what had happened. I was wondering where you come from. But I would not change anything, except that I would have liked Jackson to warn me of his presence before his birth. It is a miracle” today declares this fulfilled young mother.
Understand the denial of pregnancy and its forms
Megan, despite a hectic life as a young woman, simply had not perceived her pregnancy. The denial of pregnancy, a phenomenon still largely unknown, would concern about one in 500 pregnancy in France. Psychoanalyst Karine Denza explains it as “An extremely powerful archaic defensive strategy against unconscious anxiety”. Concretely, a woman experiences a pregnancy without being aware of it, her body not presenting the signs usually associated.
Two forms are distinguished:
- Total denial(as in the case of Megan) when the pregnancy is only revealed at the time of childbirth. As Karine Denza describes: “She goes to the emergency room, generally because she has a very stomach ache, ignores that she is pregnant and learns it when she gives birth or barely a few hours before”;
- The partial denialwhen the discovery later occurs during pregnancy: “Women learn that they are pregnant between the 14ᵉ week of pregnancy (or 16ᵉ week of amenorrhea) and the term “.
How is denying your pregnancy possible?
One of the major peculiarities of the denial of pregnancy is the absence of a visible belly, sometimes even the pursuit of monthly rules. “This is a denial in the psychoanalytic sense, pregnancy is completely absent from the reality of the mother”. According to the National College of Gynecologists, symptoms are “poorly identified” in 38 % of cases.
This phenomenon can affect all women, without typical profile. Physical manifestations are often misleading: abdominal pain, fatigue, nausea or weight variations. As Karine Denza reminds us: “The woman who makes a denial of pregnancy can suffer from stomach aches, abdominal pain, nausea, fatigue or weight gain, but she does not conceive it as signs of pregnancy”.
In our pages Dr. Lucie Joly completes this analysis: “This phenomenon is explained by an alteration of communication between the body and the brain. External factors of course play an important role, like those who induce an emotional shock”.
What consequences for the mother and the child?
The consequences of the denial of pregnancy are variable and still little documented. Dr. Joly specifies: “There is not really any study on the possible repercussions that the denial can cause on the child or/and the mother (…) Once the denial is made, the care of the patient is very important. As the maternity process could not be done during pregnancy, the mother needs more than ever to be supported and accompanied.”
But for Megan and Jackson, a new story seems to be written, in sweetness. Both touched by an infection and neat, they were able to leave the hospital on September 25. They have been created for a lifetime for two. Megan thinks that dad is a passage relationship that has not counted. But today, she says she can rely on her loved ones and the local community, in this new life as a mom.