Failure of Contraception - My Story

It was a perfect day until I noticed that I have passed my scheduled period date. I immediately opened the period tracker app on my phone and indeed, I was 8 days late. I was not exactly panicking but I was not at peace either. I got up slowly and walked out of the office, got into my car and reached the pharmacy, got down, bought two pregnancy test kits and went back.

I went to the washroom directly, as calmly as I could. I did the test and waited for the result to show up. Slowly the chromatographic strip gave the sign I was half expecting and half not. I was pregnant and I didn’t know what to feel like.

I was on oral contraceptive pills, how could they fail, I was shocked. The success rate for it was almost perfect that is why we never thought of using alternative methods or to double up the protection. Did I miss any pill in between? No. Did I mistake the sequence? No. However, mostly on days that I got home late because of office work, I wasn’t quite punctual with the timing of taking the pill. I googled if such instances contribute to the failure of the pills and it was affirmative. So I was one of those hundred women each year whose oral contraceptive pills fail to protect them from pregnancy.

It is not like I don’t want kids, my husband and I were talking about having kids someday just last month, but when would we want that someday to come, we hadn’t thought of that. It has been only 6 months to our marriage and we are still figuring out how we can spend more time with each other. Both of us are quite busy in our professional lives and are at crucial stages of our career. My husband has been working towards quitting his job to work on a start-up with his friends for their dream project. Until it can earn enough to start profiting, I had to become the financial pillar for both of us. Having a baby wasn’t on the radar for us any time soon I guess.

I completed my work and left early. I had to think and figure it all out before I told Rohan. My mind was running in all directions, and as much anxiety as I was feeling from the inside I was quite sure that of all the options that I had, I didn’t want to abort my baby.

After reaching home, I again did the test to be double sure before I told Rohan. I had heard that the test sometimes give a false-positive result. It still said the same thing, no fooling then.

I went to the kitchen and prepared dinner. By now, I had accepted the reality and was trying to think about how to tell Rohan. I was scared if he’d not be ready too and suggest about getting an abortion for the time being. I picked up my phone to call my mom and tell her but stopped, Rohan should be the first person to know this, I thought. Somehow, I still couldn’t bring myself to feel happy about it. I had never felt so blank my whole life and it had started to feel weird. I had never heard or seen a married woman who was unhappy at her first pregnancy’s news, but here I was breaking all the stereotypes, unintentionally though.

Rohan came late. He seemed tired as he sat down to untie his shoes. “I’m pregnant Rohan, I did the test twice, and it said I’m pregnant.” I blurted. He stopped and for a minute straight stared at me. Then his lips formed a smile, he got up and came up to me. Held both of my hands and said, “I really don’t know what to say to you at this very moment, you’ve just blown my mind with such amazing news in the most unexpected manner”.

“Is it amazing to you?” I squeaked.

“Yes, I mean why not, we both are going to become parents. It is more than amazing, darling” he squeezed my hands and assured me.

“But we weren’t even trying to conceive, it's an unplanned pregnancy. How will we deal about our careers with the baby around? What about finances? Don’t we need to buy a flat first? Who will take care of our baby?” I bombarded him with questions; clearly, I still was confused contrary to my belief.

“We’ll go about it as it comes, we’ll sail through. Don’t worry dear!” he kissed on my forehead.

The way he reacted to the news, all calm and happy, I regretted not breaking the news to him in a special manner.

We went on with the pregnancy. I had my ups and downs dealing with all the emotions, pain, happiness, our families took care that we were well prepared for the baby’s arrival and helped us throughout. I went through a difficult labour as I had to get a C-section but when I held our daughter for the first time, seeing her angelic face, all the blues faded away.

Just then, Rohan leaned in and whispered to me, “Aren’t the unplanned things in life the most beautiful too?”