Emotions

I just found out I’m pregnant! I really wanted this, but I am suddenly petrified. Is this normal?

Our Mommy MD Guide’s reply: When I got a positive on my pregnancy test, I was in my second of four years of residency, and my husband and I had been married for a year and a half. We had bought a house and were doing exactly what everyone says you’re supposed to do. 

I remember being scared to death. I thought What have we gotten ourselves into? I wasn’t worried about our finances because we both had jobs and bright futures. I was terrified of the thought of the responsibility of it all. 

I went into a small room off of the labor room and shut the door. I needed sometime to collect myself and contemplate what lay ahead. Even when you have all of your ducks in a row, finding out you’re pregnant is still terrifying. 

—Kathie Bowling, MD, a mom of three grown sons and an ob/gyn in private practice and at Women & Infants Hospital in Providence, RI, who’s also on the Clinical Faculty at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University