Unexpected

    By Katelyn Clark

“Oh my god you are pregnant,” said Rebecca, watching her sister get changed.

“Are you crazy? No, I’m not, no way,” said Jennifer, completely in denial.

Deep down Jennifer knew something was wrong.  Her boyfriend just broke up with her two weeks prior so he could enjoy college, whatever that meant.  Jennifer didn’t understand it, she was just a senior in high school at St. Joseph and had been with Shane for three years, but she had to accept the breakup and move on.

Weeks went on, and Jennifer couldn't stop thinking about how she was getting fatter.  She was always so skinny and petite.  She was the cheerleading team captain and a flyer.

Jennifer's best friend, Darlene, finally said: "We need to find out, we can't keep letting this go." 

She had no idea where to take the test or find anyone to buy it for her. She was just 17 and couldn’t risk being recognized buying a pregnancy test.

Darlene bought the test for Jennifer and brought it to her while she was working at Sears so that her parents wouldn't potentially find the test in the house garbage.

They went into the Sears bathroom together. That’s where they found out.  What was once a regular day in September, was now a day Jennifer would forever remember.  Jennifer was indeed pregnant. 

How could this be? So many things were going on in her mind.  She had thought she was pregnant back in June, but Shane had talked her out of thinking that and made her think it was all in her head. 

That past August, just a month before, Jennifer had gone to the gynecologist with her mother to begin birth control, and the doctor also missed that she was pregnant.  Now she worried what being on birth control could have done to the baby.

Yet, now she was standing at work, mid-September four and a half months pregnant, with no one to talk to. She felt numb, she had no idea what to do.  Fear took over every inch of her body.

Jennifer went back to work and had to act like nothing was wrong.  She had no one to talk to, she had to get back to her shift and Darlene had to leave.  Her recent ex-boyfriend and the baby’s father didn’t know.  He was also away as a freshman in college, what was she to do?

Without Darlene, Jennifer would have been out on the street.  After telling her parents about her pregnancy, they kicked her out. Darlene and her mother took Jennifer in, she lived with them for months at first.  Then Jennifer’s mom threatened to call the Department of Children and Families (DCF) and report Jennifer as a run-away.  Looking back Jennifer wishes she let her mother call, they would’ve got in trouble for kicking out their pregnant teenager. With that Jennifer left Darlene’s. 

Once she left Darlene's, Jennifer hopped around friend's places for another month or so and ended up staying with her paternal grandmother.  Her parents threatened to call DCF again, and Jennifer was back to hopping around trying to find a stable living situation for the remainder of her pregnancy.  Jennifer’s parents were trying to keep track of where she was, each time they figured it out her mother would make it so she had to leave again. 

Yet, almost like fate, Jennifer ended up back home before the baby was born.  Jennifer's father finally stood up to her mother when at a regular check-up Jennifer found out she was at high risk of dying from preeclampsia.  Preeclampsia is a rare development some pregnant women get which affects their blood pressure in extreme ways. It is identified through extremely high blood pressure, along with swelling in hands, feet, and legs. There is no cure, and lasts for 1-6 weeks after the birth of the baby. It is the result of the placenta not functioning properly, also damaging the mother’s liver and kidneys.  Although rare, preeclampsia is often found in women who are pregnant for the first time and very young. 

From then on, Jennifer’s father took her to all of her appointments. No one else was allowed.  Sometimes Shane was there, as he had come back from college and they were back together, trying to get ready for a baby at 17 and 18 years old.

In February, Jennifer’s condition had worsened, she was very swollen in her hands, legs and feet.  She was suffering from extreme headaches, nausea, and vomiting and horrible abdominal pain. She had never been so scared in her life. She was also afraid for the baby.

She was induced into labor 10 days early, for the sake of her life and her child's. Her blood pressure was so high if they tried taking her blood it would “shoot out of her arm like firing a water gun,” as she described it. If preeclampsia turned to eclampsia, Jennifer would have started to have seizures.  They saw that coming and decided inducing labor was the safest route.  Jennifer changed that day once she held her baby girl.

Today, Jennifer and her daughter beat national statistics. According to health communities, girls born to teenage mothers are 22% more likely to become teenage mothers themselves. Jennifer is now 39, runs a daycare. Her daughter is now a senior in college and a first-generation college student.  Jennifer’s parents are involved in Jennifer and her daughter’s lives, after many apologies from them and forgiveness from Jennifer.  The father, Shane, is still involved in their lives as well.  They got married in 2002 and divorced in 2016. 

Jennifer reflects on her unusual life journey to where she is today, “looking back, I wouldn’t change it for the world.  I wouldn’t do anything differently, if I had, I wouldn’t have my daughter which was the best thing that ever happened to me. She saved me and her father, she was the biggest blessing in disguise I ever could have happened.  Truly everything happens for a reason,” she said.