TLC's: I didn't know i was pregnant UC

[jeliphish]

There was a super cool story on tonight about an UC twin breech birth. Just wondering if the mom was in our MDC community?

[BroodyWoodsgal]

Originally Posted by jeliphish

There was a super cool story on tonight about an UC twin breech birth. Just wondering if the mom was in our MDC community?

WOW!

So...planned UC, but didn't know she was having twins?? Or didn't know she was pregnant, AT ALL!?

Very neat-o...would be cool if we knew her!

[mcgee]

If it's the show I'm thinking about, all of the women on it knew they were pregnant, but none knew they were having twins until shortly before or during the birth.

The UC mama on the show delivered two footling breech twins in her bathtub.

At least one other mama on the show had a homebirth attended by a midwife.

[laurashanley]

I don't know if Melissa (the UC mom in the show) posts here, but she's part of the online UC community. One of the producers of that show contacted me last year. I posted a message to the UC lists and Melissa responded.

Overall she was happy by how she was portrayed, although she said she and her husband sometimes laughed at how the actress portrayed her. But it did disturb her that the actress looked frightened during the births, when Melissa was actually very calm and confident. Melissa also never sat down in the bath after her water broke, but in the show, the actress was sitting in the water as she gave birth.

Yes, Melissa (and the other moms in the series) knew they were pregnant. They just didn't know they were carrying twins until the second baby came out (other than one mom that found out a few weeks prior to the birth).

Melissa has had another baby since the twins were born - another successful UC this past March!
Laura

[vegemamato]

I had tears steaming down my face as I watched

I would think Melissa found us by now

[onyxravnos]

very cool. I don't know about that mom but I do know a gal who had a planed UC... officially she didn't know it was twins but in reality I think she did or at least suspected.

A while ago (year or two) there was a story about a MW attended homebirth with surprise triplets!

[MsBlack]

Originally Posted by onyxravnos

very cool. I don't know about that mom but I do know a gal who had a planed UC... officially she didn't know it was twins but in reality I think she did or at least suspected.

A while ago (year or two) there was a story about a MW attended homebirth with surprise triplets!

YEah, I remember that one....and the discussion among mws that followed--I think many of us kinda believed that that mw knew there was more than one baby, but it HAD to be a 'surprise' due to state regs concerning her license not allowing attendance of multiples. Not sure it was ever determnined though. I figured it would be hard to miss triplets....not that you would necessarily know there were 3 babies in there (without u/s), but it would probably be a safe bet the mw knew there was more than one, before labor started.

I do think as a UC mom that I might not tell anyone else--not even dp--if I were having twins. Spare everyone the advance worry!

[BroodyWoodsgal]

Originally Posted by MsBlack

YEah, I remember that one....and the discussion among mws that followed--I think many of us kinda believed that that mw knew there was more than one baby, but it HAD to be a 'surprise' due to state regs concerning her license not allowing attendance of multiples. Not sure it was ever determnined though. I figured it would be hard to miss triplets....not that you would necessarily know there were 3 babies in there (without u/s), but it would probably be a safe bet the mw knew there was more than one, before labor started.

I do think as a UC mom that I might not tell anyone else--not even dp--if I were having twins. Spare everyone the advance worry!

I might be tempted to do the same thing....planning a singleton UC gets people riled up enough..I can imagine that a twin birth would be a whole other can of worms!!

Congratulations to Melissa.....and congrats again on her pregnancy and birth since the show! I'm sad that the reinactment lady had to look scared...that kind of stinks...but I'm glad she was happy with everything else!

[jljeppson]

You guys talking about the ND triplets?

[Missie]

Melissa here, the twins birth was AWESOME and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Oh wait, lol I did (except it wasn't twins)

I had been offline for a while =D I had another sign on a long time ago (we are talking something like 6 years ago, when I first started learning about UC) but it was kinda like preachin to the choir after a while and I just wanted to tell people who thought I was nuts lol.)

Another thing in the show that bothered me: They showed me saying I was scared one of the twins would die. That part of the interview was done after the birth story about the smaller twin having issues with low blood sugar, a moment when I had to take her to hospital approximately 36 hours after the birth. She weighed in at a mere 3 pounds 10 ounzes and it was discovered she had other birth defects (inconclusive but it seems to be related to the twinning)

It will be airing again New Year's Day at 1pm on TLC.

As for my knowing it was twins, I knew but didn't realize it until hindsight kicked in. I ate up all the information during my pregnancy I could find about twins and breech and no other stories would satisfy my quest. I made a joke to my son about half way through my pregnancy as we were discussing seating arrangements in the vehicle for the new baby, that if there were 2 we would need a van.

On the same note, I also had a dream like premonition where I saw the hospital room my little Crismas was admitted, but didn't know what I was seeing until I first walked into that room Christmas Day nearly 3 years ago.

Always, always trust your gut.

Eric was scared when he saw feet and asked what he should do. I did flip at that moment for about a second because he refused to read anything I wanted him to in order to prepare himself. At that point I sent him on errands to get blankets etc.

Faith was born as I was standing in the tub full of warm water. Eric came back with towels as sensations started again. I said "maybe the placenta now" with a huge smile on my face. Admittedly I felt a little smug for knowing it wasn't any placenta lol

I had already made a nest of sorts with a blanket on the floor, and at the moment I squatted (yeah I was thinking lol) to lay Faith down, her sister fell out on top of her.

They both nursed right away and were very pink and beautiful.

Today is Faith and Crismas' 3rd birthday. The past year has been really interesting and am really looking forward to watching them mature the rest of the way (about) from babydom to being preschoolers. It should be a real trip.

As for my newest, he was 3 weeks early, no biggie for me, most of mine have been between 2 and 5 weeks before any due date. It was stressful, people around me I didn't want there, PROM for 2 days, I resisted him thoroughly for several hours. I wanted a sensual, sexy birth but that was not to be. Eric said it was no biggie to have him (he didn't believe me he was a boy) after experiencing the twins, until my water was broke for a while, he wanted me to go in. I said why?

There was always something with my home births that validated my choice in my mind, but that mainstream thought surely I must be dumb or something. (the stronger image though was taking my healthy babies and freaking out about stuff I am sure they imagined in my 2 previous hospital births)

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask =D

And thanks Laura <3 for the information to make it all possible for me and many other families.

Missie

[laurashanley]

Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts, Missie! And happy birthday to Faith and Crismas!!
Laura

[Serenyd]

I'll have to try and catch that show on New Year's, I'd like to see it. Congrats on your UC's, Missie, and happy birthday to your girls! That sounds like an amazing birth & a wonderful experience!

[fwlady]

I saw this show today, and was raving about it to my friends. I have UCed several of my children. As I sit in this hospital (here for BP issues), waiting for my DH so that I can go home and gestate in peace until the baby comes. I don't have cable at home, so I was very blessed to see this show, Melissa.

You are so brave to let them reenact the birth and do the interview. I would be scared someone would report me or make my life miserable. Very brave!!

About PROM, we planned a UC with our 6th, as we had with our 4th, 5th, and 7th. My water broke and we thought that the baby would come. On hour 90, the baby had been just fine before that, I passed meconium when a real ctx started. I prayed while laying in the tub and drank juice to do kick counts. And, I was 23 days late to boot. Not unusual for me to be late, but a full PROM was something that was a little different. I knew she was okay, but mec was a little out of my knowledge because I never looked it up and didn't have time to do so. So, we ended up transferring to an unfamiliar hospital, but they did VBACs, and said I could go home (since she was fine) if I wanted, but would VBAC if I wanted to stay. WE did, and it went very well, she didn't aspirate. We got a steak dinner and went home the next day.

Now, I didn't tell them at the time that my water was broke that long. No way. But, I never had an infection, it was all fine. She was great, I was fine, the MW there handled it wonderfully. So, 2 days, yeah, why go in? Ladies of potential preemies gestate for weeks with their BOW broke on bedrest, without infection. Just got to know how to handle it. Kymberli

[Missie]

Had someone send me a private message that prompted me to finally rewrite the birth story. Haven't checked it for errors in grammar and such but thought I would paste it here, too. will edit with a link to it in the birth stories thread...

ETA: Double Footling Breech Twin UC Waterbirth at MDC

[MamaFern]

i stumbled onto this episode while staying in a hotel a few weeks ago. i watched it and it totally made me cry! surprise footling breech twins! i thought that the acting was pretty bad. i am glad they showed UC births on tv....but i did get the impression that they were showing it to caution people against UC..