I'm Pregnant, Now What?: Heartfelt Advice on Getting Through an Unplanned Pregnancy

by Sara Dormon, Ruth Graham, Ph.D. Sara R. Dormon

Book Overview

We have been where you are. Our book comes out of experience. This book has been written by people who know what you are confronting. If you are reading this, you are full of questions for which you... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0830735755
• ISBN13: 9780830735754
• Release Date: April 2013
• Publisher: Regal Books
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.57 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A valuable resource on dealing with crisis pregnancies

When Ruth Graham, daughter of Billy and sister to Anne and Franklin, learned that her 16-year-old daughter Windsor was pregnant, she hopped aboard an emotional roller coaster. "I was both angry at Windsor, wanting to shake her, and yet compassionate, longing to hold her and make everything all right. She could not seem to see that I was trying to help. Worn out with the tension between needing to be wise and wanting to wash my hands of it all, I wanted to escape. And yet there was no place far enough away to remove the knots in my stomach, the anxiety in my mind and the ache in my heart." This kind of honesty characterizes her new book, co-authored with clinical psychologist Sara Dormon. A specialist in dealing with crisis pregnancies, Dormon provides solid advice to both young mothers-to-be and the people who surround them at the end of each chapter. And while the perspectives of several women who have dealt with their own unplanned pregnancies or those of loved ones are included in the book, it's Ruth and her daughter Windsor (who might also deserve an author credit) who provide the book's heart and soul. Taking turns, they detail the difficult decisions and steps that had to be made when Windsor got pregnant, not just once, but twice, as a teenager. Here, they each write about Ruth's decision not to provide a home for Windsor and her baby during the first pregnancy: Ruth: "To help with making so many decisions with far-reaching consequences, I found that I needed someone to talk to --- someone wise and grounded. I chose to go to a local pastor for advice. He raised issues I hadn't thought of: the deeper questions of motivations, ego and spiritual components. He probed to find out if I thought God was calling me to raise the baby with Windsor. He counseled me to pray about what God would have me do. "My commonsense conviction was that Windsor was not ready to be a parent. And I knew that parenting wouldn't make her grow up. I wanted her to be able to finish high school unencumbered with responsibility for a child. When I took the pastor's counsel and prayed about it, I felt I could not take responsibility for Windsor's life and its consequences, but that she had to face those herself. I felt that stepping in and raising the baby in my home was not best for the baby, Windsor or me. I had to trust God with the results of my decision." Windsor: "When my mother made up her mind that she would have no part in helping me raise this baby it forced me to have to think. Of course I kept trying to change my mother's mind, but she wouldn't budge. I had to ask the practical questions: What was I going to do? Where would I live? How would I support myself? In my heart I already knew that I couldn't raise this baby alone, but I felt that if I admitted that, it would mean I had failed again. "Every day there was an emotional battle going on inside of me. Every day I was torn between my desires to mother this baby or to give my child a better life ... M