6 August 2016, the Deputy Superintendent of Lak Ha Police Station, Damnoen Saduak District, Ratchaburi Province, received a report from villagers about a baby approximately 3 days old being abandoned at the base of a power pole near a house. The baby was wriggling and crying, with a red face from sunburn. Authorities quickly took the baby to the hospital and will review the past 3 – 5 days to track down the person who abandoned the baby.
Besides the frequent news of abandoned children, this time there is a warning from a network of doctors and nurses who provide consultation on unplanned pregnancies. They found that many women paid for abortion pills online but were scammed and did not receive the medication. Uncle Doctor advises consulting the AIDS and unplanned pregnancy hotline at 1663 as the first step.
In this article, Uncle Doctor has 3 – 4 cases to share with you.
Case 1: On August 8, a mother and her daughter came to see Uncle Doctor at 6:00 PM. Both had red eyes, indicating they had been crying. The mother noticed her 17-year-old daughter, who was still in school, had an unusually large belly. After questioning her daughter, she admitted she was pregnant. The mother quickly brought her to see a doctor, as recommended by a neighbor. An ultrasound revealed a 22-week pregnancy. The mother asked if the fetus was healthy, while also telling her daughter that they were not ready to raise a child. The daughter agreed with her mother, and they successfully arranged for an abortion, although it was almost too late.
In such cases, Uncle Doctor wants teenagers to quickly take a urine test to check for pregnancy when they miss their period for a week. It’s important to emphasize that this is a significant and important issue for women. Uncle Doctor hopes teenagers will see from the above case that a mother can be a support for her daughter, ready to go through this together with her. It’s a power of love and family forgiveness. Uncle Doctor doesn’t want teenagers to fear their mothers or guardians to the point of not daring to tell them, letting the pregnancy progress. Think about the future as a priority.
Case 2: On August 9, Uncle Doctor received a consultation from a nurse at a hospital’s adolescent clinic. They coordinated with the AIDS and unplanned pregnancy hotline 1663 to assist a 16-year-old who was 15 weeks and 1 day pregnant and wanted to terminate the pregnancy but faced financial difficulties and couldn’t afford to travel out of the province.
Uncle Doctor wants teenagers to learn from both examples that if they are going to have sex, they should seriously use contraception. If they make a mistake, it will be difficult.
Case 3: On August 14, Uncle Doctor met a 38-year-old woman with two children. Two years ago, she had her third pregnancy, which was ectopic, and she underwent surgery but did not get sterilized. She had been taking birth control pills regularly. Her last period was on June 14, 2016. Before having sex, she didn’t take any pills because she and her partner thought she was too old to get pregnant and believed that taking pills for a long time would dry up her uterus.
In July, she bought three bottles of a traditional female tonic to induce her period, but it didn’t work, and she didn’t take a pregnancy test, even though she should have taken a urine test on July 21, a week after her missed period, or on July 14.
Later, on August 14, she came to see Uncle Doctor and found out she was 8 weeks and 4 days pregnant. She was not ready to continue the pregnancy.
The truth Uncle Doctor wants to tell is that any woman can get pregnant if she hasn’t reached menopause.
Case 4: “Mas” (a pseudonym) graduated with a law degree and is now 31 years old. She has been in a relationship for 7 – 8 years. She is the breadwinner of her family and supports her younger sister’s university education. Mas has an older sister with mental illness, and her mother is often sick and faints. Currently, she is unemployed, has no income to support her family, and broke up with her boyfriend due to distance, as he works in another province, while she was stressed with work and had to earn money to support her family.
Mas used to use birth control pills, and sometimes her boyfriend used condoms or practiced withdrawal. In the last month of their relationship, she didn’t take birth control pills. After breaking up, she hasn’t had sex with anyone. As for her period, Mas didn’t pay much attention to the exact date because it was irregular, sometimes coming, sometimes not, or being late, but she had never been pregnant in the 7 years with her boyfriend.
When her period was late, she told herself, “No boyfriend, no sex, so I shouldn’t be pregnant.” She started noticing she was eating more, gaining weight, and her belly was growing. Her weight increased from 43 kg to 46 kg, and friends teased her about eating a lot and asked if she was pregnant after breaking up with her boyfriend.
Additionally, she felt uncomfortable breathing when lying on her stomach, but she was still waiting for her period in July, which never came.
On August 1, she took a urine test, and the result was “pregnant.”
“I don’t believe it,” Mas said.
She bought another pregnancy test and tested again, and it showed she was pregnant. She thought that if she continued the pregnancy, it would be difficult to manage because having a child would make it harder to work, earn less money, and without a partner to help, the increased responsibilities would require more money, exacerbating family problems.
“It seems more than I have to have an abortion, which is quite complicated if we let the child be born.”
In this case, Mas saw a doctor on August 5 and was found to be 18 weeks and 2 days pregnant. She received safe assistance and could continue to care for her family.
The lesson she shared with Uncle Doctor is:
“If you take a wrong step with your right foot, it’s better to bring it back than to keep going forward and keep making mistakes from the start. It’s better to address the problem at its root.” What do you all think? Is it interesting?
With love and care, Dr. Ruangkit Sirikanchanakul, RSA Volunteer Network Coordinator