If You're Thinking of Becoming a Single Mom

Special Issues

Once you've decided to move ahead, you'll have a host of special issues to deal with as a single mom-to-be. These include:

• Telling people
• Dealing with complications during pregnancy
• Choosing your support team for prenatal visits, labor, and postpartum
• Deciding what to put on the birth certificate
• Telling the father (if appropriate)
• Planning financial support
• Understanding legal issues of adoption and single parenthood

Some of these issues will affect you, while others may not. As one single mom put it, "Everything I expected to be a problem -- loneliness, fear of giving birth, the belief that I'd never date again -- turned out to be no sweat. But things I never considered -- like getting laid off when I was five months pregnant with practically no money in the bank -- hit me like a Mack truck."

Still, the same mom adds, "My daughter is the most precious gift I have ever received. I would do it all again in a moment."