I Took Pills Even After Agreeing To Have A Baby

EDD-15 FEBRUARY 2007

AT first I wasn’t prepared for a baby. I was still fifty-fifty but my husband was like, ‘Let’s have a baby!’ He kept on encouraging me that we should have one but I would tell him to wait. A time came when he said he could wait no more.

Had you just wedded?
No. We actually courted from 1998 to 2003 and got married at the Attorney General’s chambers on 8 August 2003.

Why were you not ready for the baby?
He would ask me what we were waiting for but honestly I had no reason. I was simply not decided. Maybe it was because I was still studying. I knew at one point I was going to have a baby but not so soon. But eventually I came to realise that I would still have a baby someday, so what was I waiting for?

One day I decided it was time and stopped using the pill. Strangely, I panicked after having sex and the following day I went looking for an emergency morning after pill! I took one in the morning while at the office and planned to take another after 12 hours, as recommended. However while at home in the evening I made the mistake of directing my husband to my purse for change. He found
the pills and got annoyed, but did not tell me until the following day, long after I had taken the second pill in secret without knowing I had been busted.

He stopped talking about babies altogether. I would tell him a friend of ours got a baby, but he was reluctant to discuss such issues and would walk away. After a while I decided it was time and stopped taking the pills completely.

How did you find out you were pregnant?
It all started with some pain in my boobs. I got worried but I knew I was not on protection and suspected it could be signs of pregnancy.

I had gone to Kisumu to visit my sister and she advised me to go to hospital. She said, ‘You can joke around and maybe something is wrong with your breasts!’ This was because at night the breasts were so painful!

I went to hospital and told to the doctor without hesitation, ‘I need to take a pregnancy test:

How did your husband react?
We were together in Kisumu but he had gone to visit his sister. He called me at around 7.00 pm. and I told him I was at the hospital doing a pregnancy test. When he came over he was so excited he wanted to tell everyone! I pinched him and told him, ‘No, please don’t: He agreed to wait and that night we didn’t tell anyone. The following morning we started by telling our sisters and brothers.

PG MAY 07/ 33