Your story is needed because no two stories are exactly alike. The only criteria are that you (or your significant other) terminated a pregnancy that was A. wanted, B. involved a fetal or maternal medical diagnosis.
Share your story with our readers because there is healing in writing out our stories, and sharing them with others so they don’t feel so alone. It’s cathartic. It help us sort through the pieces, the reasons and so much more. Our stories provide the common threads with which healing is woven, the realization that we’re not alone, the validation in sharing not just our reasons and rationales, but the emotions that come with doing the right thing when it can be such a hard thing.
We invite you to share your story here at Ending a Wanted Pregnancy, whether there are already dozens of stories with a diagnosis similar to yours, or if there are none. Your story is needed because no two stories are exactly alike. The only criteria is that you (or your significant other) terminated a pregnancy that was A. wanted, B. involved a fetal or maternal medical diagnosis.
Why You Should Share Your Story
Somewhere out there, now or in the future, someone in a very dark place will read your words and find comfort and hope even if it is just in knowing she isn’t the first person to go through an experience like this. Often newcomers to our site and support groups tell us the following:
1. They read our stories for hours, soaking up the understanding that they are not alone, that others have been through this, and that they too will survive this heartbreak.
2. Before they had the courage to join a support group, our stories were where they turned for comfort, validation and hope.
You can provide this comfort to grieving parents today and into the future by sharing your story with us.
What You Should Share
Many of the stories here follow a similar path of pregnancy>diagnosis>decision>termination>grief, but no one should feel limited to that familiar narrative. Here are some ideas we’d love for our readers to share:
- Your grief journey and your healing.
- How you dealt with returning to work.
- How this choice impacted your significant relationships whether with your significant other, your siblings, your friends or your parents.
- How have you grown or changed because of ending a wanted pregnancy?
- What do you wish you had known or realized sooner?
- Tell us about your decisions going forward, whether it was to try for another pregnancy, to adopt a child or to set new goals instead of adding to your family.
- What helped you get through the experience? What made it harder for you?
- Write about your subsequent pregnancy or pregnancies, your rainbow baby or babies, adoptions, or your experiences with infertility. Write about how you reached those decisions and how they’ve affected you.
- Write about other paths you’ve taken that you may not have if you hadn’t been through this.
- Share your spiritual or philosophical insights into ending a wanted pregnancy.
- If you shared stories with us in the past, we’d love an update! How are you doing now? Has your perspective changed?
- Were there restrictive laws in your region or insurance limitations that made it harder for you? Tell us about it.
While we have many stories on the site already, there is always room for fresh voices content. Prenatal tests change, diagnoses and prognoses change, laws that affect our decisions and experiences change. So even if you see many stories related to your or your baby’s diagnosis, send us your story anyway. And if you don’t see any or only a few, please add yours!
We also accept stories you’ve already published at your own blog or at a third party blog like Exhale. Just let us know if we can publish the whole thing on our site, or if you prefer a partial with a link back to your personal blog. If it’s a third party blog, we will defer to their sharing requirements.
How You Can Share Your Story (It’s Easy!)
Just write your story, copy and paste it into the body of an email and send it to endingawantedpregnancy at gmail.com. Don’t worry if it’s too short or too long, and don’t even think about the opinions of that fussy English teacher you had in fifth grade … we’ll take care of any editing and let you know when your story goes up.
You Can Share More Than Words
If you’re one to express yourself in some other way … writing and performing an original piece of music or singing an original song, penning a poem, drawing a picture or painting, animating a short film or creating a sculpture, craft project or collage … you can share that here too! As long as it pertains in some way to Ending a Wanted Pregnancy, we would love to share it on our site.
Your Privacy & Anonymity are Our Top Priority
No matter what you share, we will maintain your anonymity and privacy (your name will not be published) unless you specifically instruct us to include it. If you ever change your mind either way (include my name or remove my name) just email us. Likewise, if you ever change your mind and want us to remove something you’ve shared, let us know and we’ll take it down.
A Word About Copyright
Our copyright notification is to prevent others from coming along and taking content posted here. It should not be construed as Ending a Wanted Pregnancy claiming copyright on your original work. Your original work remains yours and we will always respect you as the copyright holder of your own work, and respect your right to control it.
Notes:
We reserve the right to not publish any material that does not fit the needs of our readership. It may also take a few weeks or (sometimes) months to get your story published, as volunteers do all editing and posting here.