COUNSELLING THE PATIENT WITH THE UNPLANNED PREGNANCY – DEPENDENT WOMAN
Difficulties may arise from the fact that other people are nearly always involved. If a woman is to have a baby, she is likely to become dependent on those around her and the influence of husband, boyfriend or parents is likely to have an important bearing on her decision, even if she chooses in the end to defy them. It is a brave woman indeed who decides to go ahead with a pregnancy totally unsupported, or to have an abortion if that is against the ethics of the people she most loves and would risk losing. Sometimes the picture is so dominated or confused by others that it can be difficult for the woman to sort out her own feelings. This is particularly so with the very young who are still emotionally and physically dependent on their parents, and where the maternal grandmother would often have greatest responsibility in rearing the baby.
Miss E. was aged 1 5 and was brought to the clinic by her mother. Mother appeared to be a caring woman who felt it would ruin her daughter’s life to have a baby, but she was also concerned because she herself worked full-time and a new baby in the house would be a major disruption. Miss E. sat sullenly and said very little. The doctor asked her mother to leave the room while she examined the patient and tried with little success to find out what her real feelings were. She felt very aware of the generation gap, but an abortion did seem for the best so arrangements were made. Miss E. went in to see the nurses to arrange for her admission. Only then did she say she wanted the baby. The nurse did not book her in but suggested she think things out and come back the following week. She came back this time by herself. She wanted the abortion as she wanted to carry on at school. She had made her own decision now.
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