An ectopic pregnancy means that your baby has attached itself to an area outside of the uterus rather than inside your actual uterus. This situation can be fatal to the mother unless the pregnancy ends as quickly as possible.
This can be a very heartwrenching situation for a mother, who may mistakenly believe that she needs to have an “elective abortion”. In an elective abortion, a mother electively chooses to terminate her pregnancy-despite the knowledge that the baby most probably would go on to develop through a full term pregnancy, and have a live birth. In an ectopic pregnancy, the very high probability of both the baby dying and the mother dying, make delivering the baby as quickly as possible a necessity.
Nevertheless, we connect both mothers considering elective abortion and mothers facing ectopic pregnancy to our Maternal Death resources. May you find the remainder of our ectopic pregnancy information below to be gentle during this impossibly difficult time.
How far along are you? Because ectopic pregnancy can be fatal to the mother unless the pregnancy ends as quickly as possible, I will only include very early development links to fetal information (and there is a probability that the development of an ectopic baby may be a little different; still, it can be nice to have a general idea of what your baby’s last developments will be):
Birth Methods:
- Methotrexate
- Laparoscopy (surgery)
If your pregnancy is further along than this, you will probably give birth to your baby via laparoscopy surgery.
You are invited to share your story here as well: please remember that sharing your story at stillbirthday is a way to express your feelings and share your experiences with other mothers – it is not to diagnose, treat or answer any medical questions.
You might visit our farewell celebrations for ideas to celebrate your baby.
