Veteran journalist Kanze Dena recently shared a deeply personal story about her first pregnancy and its profound impact on her life. In an interview with Parents Magazine, she recounted the fear and anxiety she experienced after discovering she was pregnant shortly after graduating from high school.
“The first time I found out that I am pregnant, my first thought was that I am going to die,” Dena confessed.
“I had a very harsh mother, a very strict one, and here I was getting pregnant out of wedlock. I had cleared high school. There is also a notion I need to clear. I never got pregnant while in school. I got pregnant a year or two after clearing high school.”
Dena emphasized the societal stigma surrounding unwed pregnancies during her youth. “Those days, getting pregnant out of marriage, you got stigmatised for it. So I was like, I’m going to die. I will be killed.”
To keep her pregnancy a secret, Dena devised a plan. She enrolled in a secretarial and IT course at Loreto Msongari and moved into a hostel to hide her condition.
“It got me thinking of so many things in the process. For one, my mother can’t know that I’m pregnant. I ensured I locked myself into a hostel so that I can be able to hide my pregnancy.”
Kanze Dena’s Mother Finds Out
Throughout her pregnancy, Dena even considered adoption. However, her perspective changed once she held her baby for the first time.
“I was thinking to my mind, now what’s happening, creating a bond with this child. I don’t want this child, I’ve not done any shopping, I was already set in my mind how I was going to give away this baby.”
Dena’s mother eventually discovered the pregnancy while Dena was in labor. The experience was overwhelming, as Dena feared her mother’s reaction.
“I wished the ground would open up and swallow me,” she said.
Kanze Dena recently addressed and dismissed rumors about her health. She shut down rumors suggesting she was battling cancer, stating, “I am very healthy,” She also rebuked those spreading false information about her condition.
By Vivian K.