American Adoptions -- America's Adoption Agency

No Courage to Tell?

It shouldn't matter what others think. It's your body and your life. So why is it that, when most women learn they are pregnant, one of the first of the many thoughts that begin racing through their minds is telling their parents and family?

26-year-old Sara remembers well the sense of anxiety she experienced about telling her father, Ted, she was pregnant:

"There I was staring at a positive pregnancy test, and of all things to think about, all I could feel was a sense of fear and dread about telling my dad!"

Unfortunately, many of us have good reason to experience anxiety - even dread - when faced with the prospect of telling family members: we've become conditioned to fear their reactions to our decisions or actions, because of past experience.

"My whole life, any time I have ever told my dad about something that isn't the way he thinks things should be done, his reaction isn't exactly nice … or calm," Sara says. "It can make being honest with him really hard at times."

Sara says it took her almost three months to gather the courage to confront her father with the news.

"Even then, it was only because it was getting pretty hard to hide my belly," she remembers with a smile.