Most cultures have their own superstitions during pregnancy. A very common one is to announce the pregnancy publicly only when passed the first trimester. Many believed that announcing earlier might “jinx” the pregnancy in a few ways. I personally have doubts but since I’m part of that culture, I adopted it.
I did make my pregnancy public after 12 weeks. It was a rough journey even though I’m not a first-time mother, but I made it to the last trimester. With just a few weeks before the due date, I suddenly felt something. After a medical check-up, I received the news that broke my heart into a million pieces: my unborn child had no heartbeat.
It took all of me just to contact my husband and deliver the news. With such a tragedy, countless thoughts were swirling through my head regarding what went wrong or where did I commit a mistake. Pregnancy loss was even harder to accept knowing that the time was so near for us to see each other.
The grieving was tough, and as we laid our unborn child to rest, my hope for another addition to the family hadn’t been fully lost. Months after, my husband and I tried again. Soon after that, I got pregnant. However, this time, I didn’t follow what my elders told me to do so.
I went ahead and publicly announced my pregnancy as soon as we got the good news.
It dawned on me that what happened before was out of my hands. Whether the heavens above permit me to have this child or not, I will have to face that truth. That is why I became so determined to embrace pregnancy happily as early as possible.
