Finding out your friend is pregnant can come with quite a mix of emotion. You may feel shocked, sad, scared, or even disappointed. While it is completely ok to have feelings about your friend’s teen pregnancy, can you imagine how your friend must feel? I would imagine that she is likely struggling with many of the same emotions. It is in this time that you can choose to make your friend deal with your emotions or help them try to get through their own. A great friend is one of the greatest gifts they can be given during this frightening time.
Compassion
Along with not letting your emotions about your friend’s pregnancy get in the way of being a good friend, you will need to exude a lot of compassion during their pregnancy. Compassion will mean remaining understanding and expressing empathy for your friend throughout their more trying times. They will likely have many people coming against them for getting pregnant so young. They may even lose some friends and family. Being compassionate of their situation despite everyone else will mean the world to your friend.
Support
In teen pregnancy, the pregnant mother will need all of the support they can muster. This will be especially true if your friend does not have the support of their family or other friends. This does not necessarily mean that you are supporting the idea of teen pregnancy, just that you are supporting your friend. Being a good friend during your friend’s pregnancy and supporting them may look different depending on the level at which your friend has others to support them. Supporting your friend may be as little as being there for her emotionally. It may also mean helping her find support services or help her make a plan for her pregnancy.
Journey With Her
Supporting your friend may also mean being her right hand through the pregnancy. If she is lacking any other support, she may need someone who can be there for her in a more involved way. While it is understandable that your friend’s pregnancy can not interrupt your life, making yourself available to the best of your ability will likely help your friend substantially. Pregnancy will be a long and arduous process. Going through pregnancy alone is scary if nothing else. Knowing that they have a shoulder to lean on and someone who will be there throughout the whole pregnancy can provide peace of mind to your friend when they feel alone in their pregnancy.
