When
a woman is unaware that she is pregnant this is known as a cryptic
pregnancy. One in four hundred and fifty women reported not knowing
they are pregnant until the twentieth week or later. And one in two
thousand five hundred women are unaware of their pregnancy until
labor starts.
While
it is possible to confirm or deny pregnancy with other medical
intervention, the problem with this is women who have no clue that
they are pregnant or even could be pregnant won’t seek out further
testing. Most women will grab a pregnancy test if they even suspect
they could be pregnant. But if the test was negative, the woman will
believe the result and get back to living her life. While it might
seem as though women in this situation are mentally ill, or having a
clear case of severe denial, this is likely to not be true. Five
percent of women who did not know they were pregnant had
schizophrenia and eight percent were found to have some type of
personality disorder.
Apparently
this condition has nothing to do with denial or a mental illness of
some kind; it is a condition that has yet to be fully explained and
it is extremely
rare.
It is only a small amount of cryptic pregnancies that are attributed
to personality disorders or schizophrenia. It would appear that women
with this condition are sane and well educated. They just do not know
they are pregnant. They have no symptoms, no weight gain, no nausea,
and very little abdomen swelling. They may still be having periods or
have always had irregular periods. If they do suffer from any
symptoms, they are likely to be so mild or be mistaken for something
else, such as indigestion. There are very real and valid reasons for
this happening and it is linked to a mother’s stress levels.
Pregnancy
can be a tug of war between the mother and fetus for the mother’s
limited resources. The following explanation by Marco Del Giudice,
cognitive scientist at the University of Turin is that; most of the
time the balance between nourishment for the fetus and mother works
in the way it should biologically. But, sometimes the fetus takes
nutrients from the mother, the mother holds back but not in a way
that would harm the fetus. The fetus may hold back from demanding too
much nourishment due certain factors.
Marco
Del Giudice has gone on to say that embryos and fetuses let their
mother’s know they are there and need nourishment by releasing a
hormone known as human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG). This hormone
needs to be present in urine to activate a home pregnancy test kit to
turn positive. If the fetus is not producing enough then the
pregnancy may fall “under the radar” and the pregnancy test may
fail and remain undetected by the mother for a considerable amount of
time. When a fetus does not release enough HCG, he or she will
receive fewer resources or nutrients from the mother, this is why
some babies are born preterm or under weight. This is the explanation
for small babies, when there does not seem to be a medical reason for
the preterm labor occurring or that the baby is so small or
underweight.
There
are a few factors as to why a fetus may not be producing enough of
the pregnancy hormone. Chromosomal anomalies could be one reason;
this means that the fetus has a birth defect. Genetics could also
play a part; a healthy fetus might put out a low amount of the
hormone due to a genetic problem.
Stress
could be another reason. According to another theory, a fetus might
release less HCG because the mother is dealing with a lot of stress.
It is better from the point of view of the fetus for the mother to be
oblivious to the fact that she is pregnant, as that might cause more
stress. Sometimes the stress of being pregnant and other life stress
can lead to a miscarriage.
Del
Giudice further pointed out that in our evolutionary past a woman who
did not know she was pregnant and was not suffering through the
unpleasant symptoms of pregnancy was able to conserve precious
energy. She was free to move around wherever she pleased and could
eat the food that she chose to. This strategy possibly is not good
for the fetus when things in the mother’s life are good. When we
are aware of the pregnancy we change our lifestyle accordingly, eat
better and evidence will tell us that this helps when growing a
healthy and happy, full size and full terms. When a woman goes
through hard time, relationship stress and the like, the fetus may
release less HCG, or the stressed mother might be less sensitive to
the HCG hormone.
Therefore
this can be seen that a cryptic pregnancy is an adaptive “emergency”
mechanism, which means that the fetus can sense a threat and the
basic instinct to survive kicks in. The fetus chooses to demand
little from the mother to ensure his or her chances of being born. So
the moral of this story is: Don’t be so sure when your pregnancy
test turns out to be negative. The pregnancy may not become obvious
until month and months after conception.
Sources:
Copyright
© 2014 Janelle Coulton
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