Being Pregnant

Being pregnant is a nine-month commitment to developing a child within you. To birth a healthy child requires informed prenatal care.

Finding a good physician, support groups, counselors and classes are all important to a pregnancy. When you first find out you're pregnant, there will be a lot of tests that need to be done to determine the kind of prenatal care your baby requires. Visits during the three trimesters will at first occur once a month, then progress to twice a month then weekly. If you don't have health insurance, there may be state assistance, clinics and birthing centers, and payment plans that you can enroll in. If you're placing the child up for adoption, these fees may be covered for you.

Adapting one's diet, exercise regime, and lifestyle choices, like smoking and drinking alcohol, are also a huge part of pregnancy that can be discussed and advised with one's physician or care giver.

Being pregnant as a teenager is a situation mainstreamed by shows like MTV's "Teen Mom" and "Sixteen and Pregnant," but one thing that rings true to reality is how physically and emotionally troublesome pregnancy is for teens. About 15 percent of pregnant teens give birth early and many teens will experience postpartum depression afterward. The changes to one's social life, school work and relationship with one's parents may all change drastically. However these things cannot distract one from the responsibilities of being pregnant and the hope of either raising the child as a single parent or placing the infant in an adoptive home.