Wednesday, 18 September 2013

Huge Belly, Flat Belly…What a Journey!

By: Moleboheng Masilo

 Being pregnant while in school is one of the most difficult things one can experience. This experience is more than one can ever expect, one tries every day to get used to it, but it’s very hard and dreadful. Having to wake-up and still face the same challenge which is hard and also overwhelming because one can’t just think about themselves anymore, but they have to think about the life inside them so in essence woman who go through with the pregnancy live with this situation daily.

Precious Khumalo is a second year accounting student that studies at Midrand Graduate Institute.  She comes from a family of six and her mother is a single parent from the Eastern Cape. Khumalo comes from a poor background, her mother doesn’t work and her aunt is the only breadwinner.  She gave Khumalo the opportunity to study whatever she wanted at MGI so that she can have a good life, but Khumalo fell pregnant in her first year and she didn’t know what to do. She didn’t know how they were going to react. “I thought of terminating the baby because that was the only way to get out of this mess I had got myself into”. She said

The father of the baby was not supportive at all. He did not want anything to do with the baby. He also told Khumalo to get rid of the baby. She says that during the first two months she was so scared and confused and kept asking her friends to lend her money to terminate the baby but her friends refused. She saved money and the day that she went to Marie stopes clinic, they told her that she was too far along so she couldn’t continue with the process because there were possibilities of her dying too. She then saw that the baby was a blessing, even though it was going to be hard for her but she told herself that as the baby grows and she would love her even more.  

 Life seems to be hard each day one wakes up, thoughts run in their minds and the fear keeps arising every day. I tried to forget that I was pregnant, but the baby kept reminding me by kicking and turning and that hit me very hard that’s the moments where I remember that I’m going to be a mother.
The feeling is exciting when it’s just you and the baby but immediately when I had to face the people on campus and my lecturers it was really hard for me because I was scared of how everyone would judge me, challenges due to my school work it just brings the worst out of an individual but I had to try and accept that all will be well. I felt like my life was on hold, the was the only thing on my mind and what I was living for and I had to focus more in class and on the actual studies so I can make a great future for the baby.  

“Disappointing my family was one of the things that I didn’t want to do but I did and don’t feel so good about it. It hurts every second to know that my family had great expectations about me and I let them down with the pregnancy”
Even though it’s embarrassing to step in class and be watched and talked about by my peers, some of the lecturers made it quite easy for me to feel accepted and they understood that I couldn’t come to some of their lectures because of my condition. Some of them encouraged me and that kept me going and I realized that being pregnant isn’t such a bad thing and I can still reach my goals because it’s not the end of the world. The lecturers tried to make it better for me because I now had the motivation and inspiration I needed and at least I knew that they are people who still believe in me. I than told myself that I’m a winner and I can still become what I wanted to be and achieve all the dreams I had for myself, and actually graduate and have my accounting degree.

Being pregnant doesn’t mean that you are abandoning yourself but simply means you taking time away from you to concentrate on the new creation you about to bring to life. “Being, the last born at home and the first one to fall pregnant is a disgrace but yet again we all learn from our mistakes and although I have I disappointed my mother I know that God has a greater plan for me and the baby and even though this was not part of my goals I still believe that everything happens for a reason”     


No comments:

Post a Comment