banished

On the Dr. Phil Show, Rachel was on. She was a 16-year old who got pregnant and her parents, especially her mother, weren’t too thrilled about it. The day after she told her mother that she was pregnant, her mother sent her to a maternity home. Apparently, Rachel and her mom weren’t getting along. Mom thought that Rachel was rebelling ever since she met a boy, and was furious to learn that it wasn’t the same boy who got her pregnant. Mom sent her away because there were two little sisters at home. She was “protecting” them. Rachel felt betrayed to be yanked away from her family just like that. She missed being home and being with her sisters. Mom felt that she didn’t know how to deal with Rachel’s problem and so sent her to the maternity home, which was a good facility and would help Rachel during this difficult time.

This reminded me a lot of when I was 17 and a girl my age got pregnant. Let’s just call her P. P's older sister was the first one to notice her bulging stomach. Their mother didn’t even notice, or she was probably just in denial. P run away from home to her friend’s house in Bataan. P’s family asked the police’s help to find her. When they did, P was made to stay at ‘Auntie C’s house, where sis and I were also staying. P wouldn’t tell them who the father of her baby was. She told them that she was raped. But P told my cousin T that it was actually her high school teacher who got her pregnant. Her teacher was married and has a family.

P’s mother sent her away to ‘Auntie C' because she didn’t want their neighbours to know about the family disgrace. Her mother also made arrangements to have the baby adopted. She said that if P didn’t know who the father was, how would she know how the baby would turn out. P was helpless. The baby was taken away from her right after birth. She didn’t know who adopted the baby. She didn’t even know if it was a boy or a girl.

P is now married and is trying to have a baby. I’ve always wanted to ask her about her first baby. Did she ever try contacting her child? He or she must be an adult by now. But I don’t know how she feels about that. I don’t want to stir emotions that she probably wants to forget.