All the planning in the world can not prepare you for some of the unexpected “surprises” or problems that may pop up during pregnancy, whether it is an unplanned pregnancy or one that was planned for awhile. Each day, women regardless of their circumstances in life are faced with unexpected situations that occur during pregnancy or once their child is born.

During your pregnancy, you could find out that your child has a special need, a disability, or a medical condition. An example being downs syndrome or perhaps a liver problem or heart problem. Sometimes whatever may be wrong could be corrected after your baby is born and other times the problem may be uncorrectable and a life long condition, such as downs syndrome.

The issues could be mild and perhaps only physical or they could be severe and not only physical but mental and cognitive as well. They may be correctable and they might not be. You could find out about these types of problems during pregnancy as the result of blood tests, ultrasounds, or genetic counseling or they could not occur or show up until your baby is born.

I don’t think any mother is expecting her child to be born with complications. I know I was in for a big surprise when my son was born early with complications and later diagnosed with cerebral palsy. I was not prepared for that! But it was what happened and what hand we were dealt, so we just had to deal with it, move forward, and do our best. It’s not easy. Believe me, I know from experience. We certainly have had our struggles.

You may be worried if your child is diagnosed with a problem and you are certain about making an adoption plan, that it will make finding adoptive parents for your baby more difficult. And while there are adoptive parents who may run because they feel ill equipped to handle the diagnosis, there are some really good ones out there who seek out special needs children.

I guess the point of this post is that you never know what may happen. So when the unexpected pop ups follow the advice of my favorite reality television show (Big Brother) you must expect the unexpected and go with the flow.