How many times have we heard someone say, “Oh, we didn’t really plan on our 3rd child” or “She was an accident?” Then you see the couple bring up their “blessing” so well and hear them say stories about how proud they are of their “mistake”. Unfortunately not all pregnancies turn out to have such happy endings. The outcomes of such accidents can range from sterile abortions by professionals to messy, illegal methods of termination, most do not even go past the 1st trimester.

Few weeks back I met a woman who talked about her last pregnancy. With a 1 year old son and  a financial crisis at home, she was not willing to get pregnant. But around 5 months back, she missed her period and after a strip test  found out that she was pregnant. She told her husband, mother and mother-in-law, who decided to terminate it. Her husband got her 2 pills which she was instructed to take 12 hours apart. The next day the mother-in-law got another pill, in case the first did not work. Later that day her period started and it went on for 1 month after which she got really weak and anaemic and was taken to a nearby clinic.

In the clinic, instantly, they performed D&C on her. D&C(Dilatation and Curettage) is a common gynaecological procedure where the tissue inside the womb is removed, under general or spinal anaesthesia. For this unfortunate mother,  the whole procedure was done without the use of anaesthesia or even an analgesic. There were no hospital admissions and no follow ups.

A week following this incident, as her bleeding continued, she went to a gynaecologist who gave her few tests and prescribed  her  medicines which stopped the bleeding. Recently she got an ultrasonogram done which showed severe damage of her uterus because of excessive scraping during the D&C. Unfortunately for this young woman, she will no longer be able to have another baby.

Such stories are very common. A 19 year old, unmarried, girl was admitted to the hospital with severe pain in the abdomen. An ultrasonogram revealed an irregular mass in the uterus. After a private session with the gynaecologist, the mass was found to be tissue from the baby she had aborted. She accidentally got pregnant and went to a clinic to get an MR done. MR(Menstrual Regulation) is a procedure to remove the contents of uterus and is usually done within 15 days of a missed period and must be performed by skilled or trained personnel. Coming back to the patient, the tissue was not completely removed and it turned into an infected mass because the instruments used were not properly sterilized. This was the reason behind the severe abdominal pain she had been suffering from for almost 1 week, which finally lead her to seek a doctor’s opinion.

There are few clinics, which do not employ licensed doctors for performing abortions, MRs are done by nurses or midwives. Midwives or Skilled-Birth Attendants, do not have the necessary knowledge or skills required for this field. They are delivering children, terminating pregnancies at cheaper prices than the licensed professionals, but at the cost of the mother’s and newborn’s lives. Let alone the psychological trauma the mother goes through after losing the baby or not being able to concieve after a wrongly done procedure.

Few visits to a gynaecologists, some laboratory tests, following a prescribed and approved form of contraception should help you avoid pregnancy. All forms of contraceptives may not be 100% effective but they are better than termination. And of course there are natural methods to avoid pregnancy alongside the usual methods like pills or condoms. An easy way to prevent unwanted pregnancies is to know the period during which one is fertile and avoid intercourse during that period. Consult your doctor or use our ovulation calendar to help you try for a baby if you want to get pregnant or avoid unwanted pregnancies.