CHILDREN BY CHOICE ASSOCIATION INCORPORATED

Think about your feelings and their triggers

Sometimes after an abortion, a range of feelings may be triggered by anniversary dates, seeing babies, couples, the clinic and so on. To deal with these feelings, it is important firstly to understand that this is quite normal and often occurs with other life events as well. You may want to try and think of some other experiences you have had where certain times, places and things have brought up a range of difficult feelings for you. How did you cope with these feelings? Can you apply these strategies to what is going on for you now?

Where is it these feelings are coming from? Are they coming from the loss of a pregnancy, relief that you are no longer pregnant, feelings brought on by not being able to express feelings around the abortion to significant others etc? Feelings are easier to deal with when there is awareness of where they are coming from.

Lastly, is there any useful purpose to these feelings? Can the feelings be used as a reminder to what you have learnt or to how much you have grown through this experience? Can the feelings be used as a reminder to the reasons you had for discontinuing the pregnancy?

The most important thing to remember is that you may experience a range of emotions after the abortion, but that does not necessarily indicate that you made a wrong decision. If you are ever unsure or unhappy about your feelings or your level of coping after your abortion, feel free to contact Children by Choice's counselling service.