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Welcome to the storefront for Surprise Motherhood: A Guide to Unexpected Adult Pregnancy!

This site offers information, resources, advice, and help for women who are experiencing unintended pregnancies. Unlike most sites for unplanned pregnancy, this site is unique because it focuses on adult women, not teenagers.

You can learn more about the book that started it all, Surprise Motherhood: A Guide to Unexpected Adult Pregnancy, and the author, below. If you click on the book cover link in the sidebar, you can preview selected sections of Surprise Motherhood.

We'll be adding resources, links, and an interactive feature soon.

About the Author


Ophelia Austin-Small holds a Master's Degree in Psychology. She has been working in social services for 11 years as a therapist, career coach, and Program Manager. Ophelia lives with her husband and two children in Northern California.

About Surprise Motherhood

At twenty-seven, Ophelia was working full-time & pursuing her doctorate when she found she was pregnant, despite using two forms of birth control religiously. She was dismayed to find pregnancy books assumed either she planned this baby & was thrilled to be pregnant, or she was fifteen & had gotten knocked up in the backseat of a Chevy. Nowhere could she find a book geared towards women like herself- successful, independent adults, facing a surprise pregnancy in their later twenties or thirties.

Surprise Motherhood is aimed directly at that gap. It tells the real stories, of Ophelia & of other women, who have faced pregnancy at a time when they least expected it & society expected them to be thrilled. In a direct, clear, & often humorous voice, she takes you on a journey from shock to acceptance.

Chapter subjects include:
*Options
* Paternity
* Sex during pregnancy
* Surviving complications
* Things to buy- and things to avoid
* Friend loss
* Maternity rights, including federal and state Family Leave laws
* Keeping your career on track
* Finances
* Postpartum depression
* and lots more!

Reviews of Surprise Motherhood

From A.B. in North Carolina:

"I read this book cover to cover in almost one sitting and loved it. I'm a brand new dad but I connected with the "mommy" in this book over and over again.

The author dispenses with needless formatting of concepts and expectations and simply gives the nitty-gritty facts and details that one needs to expect and be weary of while pregnant and during the first months/years of parenthood. Ophelia Austin-Small incorporates her own life experiences and those of others into a feel-good storytelling format that allows the reader to lower their guard and feel okay about themselves while also being given insight and tactics to be empowered to deal with life-bearing and life-altering decisions.

Although language and topic can be coarse at points in the book, it helps emphasize that the author is not trying to sell a false, "PC" image but focuses on the often overlooked low-points and uncomfortable topics of motherhood, and parenthood in general. I picked this book up 10 months after my first child was born, and I'm the father, yet it still held useful information for me and gave me solace knowing others have had similar experiences. Had this book been available two years ago, I would have worn the pages thin by now.

Kudos to this first time author and two time mother in being able to take her own daunting life-bearing experiences and produce a piece of literature that can help others make it through their own experiences with a bit more hope and self-respect."