How women can go the full nine months without knowing they're pregnant

Citation

Cheyne H (2016) How women can go the full nine months without knowing they're pregnant. The Conversation. 11.05.2016. https://theconversation.com/how-women-can-go-the-full-nine-months-without-knowing-theyre-pregnant-58620

Abstract
First paragraph: It is a “notorious fact”, one so commonly accepted and obvious it requires no evidence to support it in a court of law, that every womanknows when she is pregnant.  In a society that has a low tolerance for uncertainty, cases that challenge our collective notion of the possible fascinate and confuse us. Headlines such as “Baby birth shock for soldier on Afghanistan deployment”, or “I had this extremely painful urge to push and that’s when the head came out” are received with a mix of incredulity and scepticism. Yet cases of “cryptic pregnancy” – also known as “pregnancy denial” – are not particularly rare. In fact, they are estimated to occur in around one in 2,500 cases, suggesting around320 cases in the UK annually, or a potential headline story almost every day. Access this article on The Conversation website: https://theconversation.com/how-women-can-go-the-full-nine-months-without-knowing-theyre-pregnant-58620

Keywords
Childbirth; Pregnancy; Women; Stillbirth

People

Professor Helen Cheyne

Personal Chair, NMAHP