There are a lot of women that take birth control so they don’t get pregnant, but did you know that it is possible to get pregnant on birth control due to these factors? Read on for real stories of mom’s that had this happen to them and how they found out!
Birth control is 99.9% effective when taken correctly but there are some things that lower this number such as taking certain antibiotics, being sick, taking off brand birth control, missing a pill a day or two. All of these things factor in and can get you pregnant when you don’t want to be.
You have probably heard of those shows I Didn’t Know I was Pregnant and wonder how does this happen to women in the first place. Women are giving birth with no clue about being pregnant in the first place and some of them aren’t over weight and don’t look like they are pregnant.
Huffingtonpost, Catherine Pearson wrote about this in an article How women can be pregnant and not know it. Source
It has also been talked about on CNN They didn’t know they were pregnant by Elizabeth Landau Source
I asked a group of women how many of them were pregnant and didn’t know it and this is what I found out.
One women thought she had bruised her rib and found out she was 6 months pregnant and was also breast feeding so she didn’t have any idea. Another was 12 weeks with her 7th child and found out at 17 1/2 weeks, the first test she took was negative so a month later she retested and found out she was pregnant.
One of the more shocking was a women went for an MRI for a suspected tumor which turned out to be a baby instead!
These women went to the hospital in pain and came home with a baby!! According to pregnancycorner.com this is called a cryptic pregnancy. One out of every 475 pregnancies is a cryptic pregnancy, unknown to the mother until after the 20th week and one out of every 7,225 learns that she is pregnant when she goes into labor!
Looking online at forums it seems more common for women to find out late then it is to go into labor and then find out. Our bodies do give us clues but some of the time they can mean other things such as illness or stress. We shouldn’t judge women for not knowing because as a female our bodies can be confusing sometimes and the symptoms are very similar to pms and being sick from a bug.
www.netmums.com One women didn’t find out till she was 5 months because of breastfeeding her periods stopped and she had some indigestion and tiredness, if she hadn’t taken a test she would have not known for a while.
On www.madeformums.com there are many women that found out late about being pregnant due to false negatives and testing over and over until it showed positive or had the GP check it out and do an ultrasound only to find that she was a few months along.
How Can You Get Pregnant On Birth Control
In the many forums I have been in women have stories of being 3 or 4 months along before they figure out they are pregnant. Some of this is due to having no symptoms, stress, or taking the depo shot, false negatives, irregular periods, breastfeeding and even infertility problems.
This can happen when you miss a few pills or are taking medication and not doubling up on birth control methods. Also if you have a stomach bug with vomiting or even diarrhea and indigestion can cause your birth control to be less effective. Another factor I didn’t know until I was researching but the off brand ones have a lower dose of the hormones to stop ovulation making it less than 99.9% effective.
Drinking alcohol can heighten your chances as well making it harder for your liver to process the pills and allowing your body to ovulate.
By being informed with the truth behind the pills we can take precautions if we don’t want to have a baby and save ourselves heartache when we accidentally get pregnant.
If you have any doubt that you might be pregnant go to the doctor!
Conclusion: Getting Pregnant On Birth Control
The symptoms mask other factors so unless you take a test and it shows up the baby can hide in us for a while before we know. Some women are more in tune with their bodies and feel something isn’t right so they take a test or go to the doctor and find out. With both my pregnancies I found out at 5 weeks but every pregnancy is different and it could happen to me too.
My husbands niece had a baby and found out she was 6 months pregnant and had no clue, she must have gotten pregnant a few weeks after having her baby so she didn’t really think about it. Poor girl was really upset for a while, she has a beautiful baby boy now and is a busy mamma of 3!
The best thing we can do for ourselves and a baby is go to the doctor and find out what is going on even if we feel like we’re paranoid. Knowing what is going on is better than wondering and gives peace of mind. No need for added stress in our lives when it doesn’t have to be.
If you have any symptoms that you may be pregnant get a test and find out as soon as possible, it is important for your health and the health of your baby! If your test comes back negative and you still feel you are pregnant wait a few days or a week and test again. If this is impossible because you really need to know now go to the doctor and have a urine test done which is a bit stronger than the home tests and they can also do a blood tests to determine if you are pregnant even with low levels of HCG.
Let me know what you think of this post, I would love to hear your comments and stories. Maybe this has happened to you.
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