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Suppose there is a doctor who wants a patient to cancel a planned abortion for the patient's safety. What should this doctor say?

Can an English speaker please help me to fix the following sentence so that it would sound more natural?

Please don't abort the baby, you have to bear the baby for your own safety.

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Instead of "bear the baby", you can say "carry the baby to term". This means to carry the baby until it's ready to be born. Unlike your phrase, it doesn't describe the birth itself.

Term is short for full term. From Collins:

term. Also called: full term. the period at which childbirth is imminent

Carry may be replaced with bring, but carry is more common.

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More informally, someone might say

Please don't abort the baby, you should keep the baby.

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As a doctor I would add the reason: For reasons of your own safety you should not think of abortion.

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You could be literal and just say "give birth to the baby." To use the OP's example:

Please don't abort the baby, you have to give birth to the baby for your own safety.

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  • I don't think "give birth" is a good choice, because it's not just a question of giving birth, but also keeping the baby until it can survive birth.
    – Nico
    Commented Apr 8, 2014 at 16:47
  • @Nico The term "give birth" is always colloquially used in the sense of carrying a fetus until the time comes to deliver it. One cannot both abort a pregnancy and give birth. So, "giving birth" implies not aborting the fetus in the meantime; if you abort, you had an abortion or miscarriage rather than giving birth.
    – door_number_three
    Commented Apr 9, 2014 at 19:34
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As a nurse, if I was speaking professionally to a patient I might say. "Please reconsider having an abortion. Carrying the baby to term and having a monitored delivery would be a safer alternative for you." In casual conversations I would say 'have the baby" rather than 'bear the baby'.

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