Pregnancy Counselling

Pregnancy counseling is a form of counseling that provides information and support regarding a women’s pregnancy. Woman seeking pregnancy options counseling are typically doing so in the case of an unintended pregnancy. Limited access to birth control and family planning resources, as well as misuse of birth control are some of the major contributing factors to unintended pregnancies around the world. In 2012, the global rate of unintended pregnancies was estimated to be 40 percent, or eighty-five million pregnancies.^[1]

Pregnancy options counselors educate women about the different options that are available and help guide them to a decision on how to proceed with their pregnancy. The options include abortion, adoption, or parenting. The job of a pregnancy options counselor is to neither encourage nor discourage a woman’s particular decision, nor do they profit from the woman’s choice.^[2] Rather, they present unbiased information about each of the options non-judgmentally, then help the woman explore her feelings and come to a decision that fits her best based on her values, culture, future plans, etc. Pregnancy options counseling centers are not the same thing as crisis pregnancy centers, which may not provide unbiased information

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