Pre-Pregnancy & Prenatal Development
Learning Objectives:
- Explore and connect a Theory, Approach, or Perspective to work in critical thinking skills for client assessments
- Explore important aspects of a person’s experience and ability to justify why they are important
Vignette
Sabrina is a 28 y/o Caucasian female. She has chosen to share some of her journal entries to provide information with the Family Planning worker she is meeting with.
Sept 11th: Why is this so hard?!? 4 miscarriages before we had Carly, I got through that and have so loved being a mom – why does it have to keep happening? 3 more miscarriages since trying again – will it always be this way? Will I ever get to have anymore children? What’s wrong with me????
Oct 31st: PREGNANT!!!! I know it’s early but I still get SO excited!!! I haven’t told Mark yet since it’s only 5 weeks – I don’t want him to get his hopes up and get disappointed AGAIN. Keeping my fingers crossed!!!
Nov 21st: 8 weeks and everything is going great! I finally told Mark and he was SO excited too – we both want a big family and we get to add another baby!!! Even though I’ve been feeling good we’ve decided to keep the news to ourselves for a while longer, just to make sure…
Dec 12th: 11 weeks and OF COURSE something had to go wrong. We had the First Trimester Combined test done and the news isn’t great. Why do bad things have to keep happening when I try and have a baby?!? Why is it so hard??? They said the baby is at risk of having Trisomy 13 – severe development delays, that’s all I keep hearing in my head over and over – I’m so scared of what’s going to happen… They said not to worry, we still have more testing to do, but how can I not worry?!? I’m not even sure what it all means! I’m trying to tell myself to stay calm and hope for the best but with all that’s happened before, how can I not worry???
Dec 22nd: It’s Christmas time but how can I be happy? We just got the results back yesterday. 50% chance the baby will have Trisomy 18. WHY??? Why can’t it be easy and normal??? I’m heartbroken and SO SO angry!!! And I have no idea what Mark’s thinking. I know he’s said before he doesn’t believe in abortion and neither do I, but how can we take care of a baby that will have so many severe needs? I know how awful that sounds and maybe I’m an awful person. I’ve prayed for another baby for so long and God’s finally answered my prayers, but how am I supposed to handle all of this? Taking care of Carly, the house, the dogs, EVERYTHING!!! What if I have to quit my job to stay home and take care of this baby? How will we make it? We can’t afford for me to stop working – we barely make it as it is now!!! And what would our friends and family think? They would never allow it, or never talk to us again – but they’re not the ones who will have to take care of this baby!!! I feel so alone in this right now and just don’t know what to do…
Critical Thinking:
- What theory, approach, or perspective from previous Dimensions (PIE, Biopsychosocial, Sociocultural, or Social Change) would you use to assess this client? Why?
- What do you feel are the most important aspects (physical development, attachment, sexual development, etc) to consider for this client? Why?
References
Hutchinson, E. D. (2019). Dimensions of human behavior (Sixth edition). Sage Publications, Inc.
