One woman got pregnant when she least expected it.
Briana Mordente Franklin: You know how people say it'll happen when you're not stressed? "Oh, that's why you got pregnant ... You were relaxed, you weren't sweating the small stuff ..." I suppose that makes sense, but I got pregnant at the height of my stress. I had just been laid off from a job that I had for ten years, the economy was in a recession,
making getting a new job that much harder, and I truly didn't know
where I would turn next. My husband and I had been trying to have a
baby, although not diligently, for the last two years, and I was to the
point where I didn't expect it ever to happen.
We escaped to Hawaii for a much-needed vacation for my husband, and the plan was that I'd start looking for a job as soon as I got back. That thought consumed me; every day in Hawaii was one day closer to going home and facing "doom," as I called it. Many a night, our dinners overlooking the ocean consisted of talks about what steps I could take, usually ending in a heated conversation with my husband, due to my "I hate everything" attitude. Suffice it to say, my mind wasn't at ease.
When we got back from Hawaii, I remember thinking, "If only I were pregnant, that would solve everything." After being in the workforce all this time, and being well into my thirties, it was time. It was now or never. If only it would happen.
Around this time, I realized I was late. I had a dinner party to go to that night and knew I'd indulge in a good amount of red wine, so I went out to get a pregnancy test that afternoon. Not thinking I'd get a positive reading, I purchased the cheapest test at the drug store when I knew I should just splurge and get the one that says either "pregnant" or "not pregnant." No misreading the results with that one! I took the test as soon as I got home, and from what I could tell, it was positive. So I took another one. Positive. But, was it? So back in the car I went, to a different drug store, and purchased the one that would cause no confusion. "Pregnant," it read. Loud and clear. My first thought was, "Girls like me don't get pregnant -- girls like me drink wine! Girls like me have fun!" But there it was, right in front of me, and it was the most surreal moment of my life. Later, when I told a few people, they said, "Oh, you were in Hawaii, you were relaxed, you weren't stressed. That's when it happens!" "Yeah," I had said, not bothering to explain what a mess I had been. "You must be right."
So what did I learn? There is no explanation for how the universe works, which is unsettling. So people try and make sense of things by saying, "You'll get pregnant when your body is relaxed," because it's just too damn scary to think there's absolutely nothing you can do to make it happen [naturally] except hope.
 | After graduating from UCLA with a degree in sociology, Briana spent the next decade working for Premiere Radio Networks, where she applied her own unique spin to writing entertainment and celebrity news for disc jockeys to use around the country. She and her husband will become first-time parents in November. |
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