Denied Pregnancy: Case Report

Introduction: Denied pregnancy is when a woman is unaware of, or unable to accept her pregnancy until birth the baby. This may be linked to mental health difficulties or difficulties, and more broadly reflect ambivalence to the pregnancy. Denied pregnancy may be associated with significant risks for both the mother and baby.Case Presentation: A 27-year-old obese married woman referred to the hospital s emergency department for severe back pain. In her medical history, she experienced low back pain for years and pain became worse in recent month. The woman had no psychiatric illness and had never been pregnant before. A sonography by doctor showed that she was pregnant, a gestational age of 38 weeks. She had no aware of her pregnancy because she had no physical symptoms of pregnancy except abdominal striae and hyperpigmentation. The full term baby boy was born in the emergency department after half an hour. The mother and baby were transferred to the maternity ward for further evaluation and follow-up.Discussion and Conclusion: This case presented a non-psychotic type of denied pregnancy. Due to the potentially tragic outcome, it is important to increase awareness of possibility of denial of pregnancy on the part of health care professionals. Furthermore, assessment of mental health and education of women about physiological changes during pregnancy by midwives and health care providers is needed.