A pregnancy is a huge thing to have to deal with at any stage of life. But when autism already rules your life, an unplanned pregnancy can be especially intimidating.
If you find yourself in this situation, you may feel shocked, alarmed, perhaps even scared. Alternately, you might also feel hopeful, jubilant, excited. There is really no right or wrong way to the emotions you may be feeling.
In any case, you’ll need to decide how you are going to deal with your unplanned pregnancy, and that is something that can be quite a challenge. Let’s talk through some of the ideas and things you’ll want to bear in mind to make the situation easier.
Get Confirmation
First of all, it’s worth saying that you should probably get some confirmation from a doctor before you start worrying about anything else. There really is no telling how inaccurate those home pregnancy tests can be, even the more expensive ones, so it’s always a wise move to get a professional medical expert to confirm it for you. Only once they have done so can you start thinking about what to do next. The other main benefit of this is that they themselves will likely have a lot of advice for you, to help you get the ball rolling.
Accept Your Emotions
As we mentioned briefly above, you may be experiencing a world of emotions, and that’s okay. In fact, it’s perfectly healthy and normal. The trick is not to fight your emotions, but instead to accept them as what they are, so you can work through them and see them for the information that they hold.
It might be helpful to develop some mindfulness practice, so you can note down what you are feeling. That can be anything from sadness to rage and profound ecstatic joy. Nothing is off limits here, and it’s all just something you need to pay attention to. Just let every feeling flow as it must. That’s really all you need to do.
Seek Support
Once you are ready to, you might want to start seeking some support to help you through your situation. That support can come in many forms, and depending on your situation you might need some kinds of support but not others, and so on. For instance, you might decide that you need to meet with your best friends to talk it all through – this will often be a first port of call. You might also want to look out for a local group to be part of, and something like Embrace Grace can be a good place to start for that.
Whatever kind of support you think you might need, make sure that you are looking out for it and claiming it as soon as possible. There is nothing wrong with doing so, and in fact it is vital if you are going to get through the pregnancy as easily as possible.
Visualize The Future
If you are struggling to imagine what life is going to look like with a baby in the picture, a simple visualization exercise might be of help. You can do this once a day, or really however often you feel the need to, and it might be that it helps you to appreciate exactly what you might be in for. Of course, you can’t predict the future, and you can never imagine perfectly what it will be like when you have a child. But just the act of sitting and calmly imagining what it might look like can be enormously helpful, and is certainly something that you might like to try for yourself.
Be Aware Of Your Options
Remember that you have options, and it is entirely up to you what you do about your pregnancy. If you are unsure about anything here, you should seek out some advice and assistance, and there is thankfully plenty of that out there that you can look out for. You always have a lot of options to hand, so make sure that you are doing what is right by you and not anything that you think you should or must do. Of course, that can be easier said than done, but it is nonetheless something you may want to bear in mind.
Those are just some of the things to think about when you have an unplanned pregnancy on the cards. The main thing is to accept whatever help you need.
