Pregnancy Rooted in Catholic Teaching

Janele Hoerner examines how to ponder the paths laid out for us during pregnancy by Mary, the saints, and Scripture. 

A Typical Pregnancy 

Pregnancy can have various paths based upon what a parent is wishing for during this period of time in a mother’s life. Pregnancy can simply mean the duration of growth of a human from conception until birth. This can be a time where the mother of the child goes about her same daily occupations and actively or passively allows the growth of her child to continue. She may continue to live life much in the same way as she has lived life before, minus doing anything harmful for her child. She may shop and decorate for her new child or read a basic parenting book and pick out the perfect name, but the time passes without much more focus on the happenings of the new life or what it means to be given a human life within a family.

For most of the world, this is what pregnancy means: a period of time lasting roughly nine months and then it is over, to be almost forgotten, with the birth of a child.  

A Catholic View of Pregnancy 

Each pregnancy that each mother on earth has is the same regarding the growth pattern of a child, yet each pregnancy, even within the same family, can be vastly different.If we examine the state in life of the mother as well as the meaning of pregnancy, then we can begin to be brought into a deeper understanding of ourselves.  

Pregnancy within a Catholic viewpoint can and should have a much deeper-rooted meaning and trajectory compared to much of the world. Yes, there is still the planning and shopping for the basic needs of child that we naturally share with our non-Catholic neighbors and friends, but there is so much more to be uncovered. Each period in time within each individual pregnancy, including the time of openness before a new life has been conceived, can be meditated on and pondered privately as well, contemplating the lives of Mary and the saints, as well as scholarly writings.  

Endurance is the way of sainthood and although there are aspects of parenting that are truly enjoyable, a parent would be lying if they said they truly enjoyed all of them. Many stages of raising a child are rooted in a deep sacrifice to God’s will over our own: hence the term “openness to life”! Pregnancy is the beginning stage of parenthood and should hopefully not be the very beginning of our spiritual journey, but a new beginning where we, for the first time, think of ourselves as how we want to be perceived by our own future generation.  

Pregnancy can be a time of great growth and amazing spiritual advancement if we ponder what Mary, the saints, and the Scriptures teach us about human development within the womb.  

Mary was open to life, but I can hypothesize she never imagined, given her state in life, that she would ever conceive and bear a child, let alone God’s son! By her openness to life and being in the state of grace, God asked this of her. So many women saints who answered the call of God were, although different from our Blessed Mom, faithful mothers and did great things in parenthood to raise great human persons. Saint Giana Molla, Saint Zélie Martin, and Saint Anne are some of the great motherly saints we can look to; all have different stories of love and growth within parenthood.  

May we all take this time in our lives to become closer to God as we ponder on the lives of these great women. If the time has passed for you to become pregnant with a child, you can still ponder these things as you prepare for a spiritually adopted baby or a future grandchild.   

Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person — among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life. (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2270) 

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Copyright 2025 Janele Hoerner
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