makeuptalk
09-13-2005, 03:47 PM
Hi! I'm new here. I subscribe to the Mothering magazine and stumbbled accross this forum today. I'm so glad I did. There is so much information here and support from people. What a nice community!
Here is my story. I had a perfectly easy and normal pregnancy with my 1st child (he is 4 1/2 now). I had natural deliver because I didn't want any medication. I also breasfed him for 2 1/2 years (he weaned himself at that time). My husband and I decided to wait a while until having another baby. Well in the beginning of this year we decided to start trying. We got lucky the 2nd month. We were so excited and told everybody we knew (with our first we waited until past 12 weeks before we told anyone). Everything looked fine in the first ultrasounds so we were excited. Then at 13 weeks I started bleeding. I was diagnosed with placenta previa. My Ob/gyn said that there was no treatment for it and that they wouldn't want to do anything since I was under 24 weeks anyway. (I consulted an out of state maternal-fetal specialist who disagreed but since he was not my Ob he couldn't do anything). The Ob I was seeing was different from my 1st pregnany. I wasn't comfortable with her answers but kept going back to her. I asked to be referred to a local maternal-fetal specialist which she did. My bleeding continued for 4 weeks and I had several ultrasounds (transvaginal) and finally my water broke. There was hardly no amniotic fluid left. Our little girl had no room to move in the womb anymore. We waited to see if the fluid would build back up (I drank gallons of water) but it didn't. I had several major bleeding episodes and finally ended up having a d&c at 17 weeks because they thought that I was in danger with the bleeding and that the baby had no chances of survival. The heartrate was going down etc. It was the hardest experience I've ever gone through. Both my husband and I were devestated. Our son was so sad when we told him the baby went to heaven. He wanted a baby so badly.
I've reflected back on this pregnancy and now wonder what went wrong...I know the doctors claimed that the placenta just implanted in the wrong spot and it was a fluke. Through the bleeding episodes I had a strong instingt that there was nothing wrong with the baby and that I would get to hold her at the end of all this. (Maybe I was in denial, I don't know). This won't happen again they claim but it's weird that this pregnancy was so different from my 1st. I had no sickness with my 1st and I was very sick with nausea with this pregnancy. This pregnancy was also treated very differently from my 1st. The OB I had this time wanted to do an U/S at 7 weeks to make sure the baby is there and everything is ok because I was about to leave on a trip for my work. Also during all the bleeding episodes I had tons of ultrasounds (mostly transvaginal) and now I wonder if the ultrasounds caused something. With my 1st baby I only had the 20 week U/S and 1 level II ultrasound because I had a false positive AFP rest but these were so much later in the pregnancy. I've been reading about the safety of ultrasounds on this board and I didn't even know before that the use of U/S is contreversial. With my next pregnancy I will definitely take more charge and not have ultrasounds done other than the 20 week one. I also read after that transvaginal ultrasounds are not recommended with placenta previas and that's what I had done constantly...did the doctors not now that????
With my next pregnancy I'm considering using a midwife and going back to the basics of having a baby without all this medical stuff. It almost seems like it's too much and causes unnessary worry. If I'm not going to use a midwife I'm definitely going to change the OB.
Here is my story. I had a perfectly easy and normal pregnancy with my 1st child (he is 4 1/2 now). I had natural deliver because I didn't want any medication. I also breasfed him for 2 1/2 years (he weaned himself at that time). My husband and I decided to wait a while until having another baby. Well in the beginning of this year we decided to start trying. We got lucky the 2nd month. We were so excited and told everybody we knew (with our first we waited until past 12 weeks before we told anyone). Everything looked fine in the first ultrasounds so we were excited. Then at 13 weeks I started bleeding. I was diagnosed with placenta previa. My Ob/gyn said that there was no treatment for it and that they wouldn't want to do anything since I was under 24 weeks anyway. (I consulted an out of state maternal-fetal specialist who disagreed but since he was not my Ob he couldn't do anything). The Ob I was seeing was different from my 1st pregnany. I wasn't comfortable with her answers but kept going back to her. I asked to be referred to a local maternal-fetal specialist which she did. My bleeding continued for 4 weeks and I had several ultrasounds (transvaginal) and finally my water broke. There was hardly no amniotic fluid left. Our little girl had no room to move in the womb anymore. We waited to see if the fluid would build back up (I drank gallons of water) but it didn't. I had several major bleeding episodes and finally ended up having a d&c at 17 weeks because they thought that I was in danger with the bleeding and that the baby had no chances of survival. The heartrate was going down etc. It was the hardest experience I've ever gone through. Both my husband and I were devestated. Our son was so sad when we told him the baby went to heaven. He wanted a baby so badly.
I've reflected back on this pregnancy and now wonder what went wrong...I know the doctors claimed that the placenta just implanted in the wrong spot and it was a fluke. Through the bleeding episodes I had a strong instingt that there was nothing wrong with the baby and that I would get to hold her at the end of all this. (Maybe I was in denial, I don't know). This won't happen again they claim but it's weird that this pregnancy was so different from my 1st. I had no sickness with my 1st and I was very sick with nausea with this pregnancy. This pregnancy was also treated very differently from my 1st. The OB I had this time wanted to do an U/S at 7 weeks to make sure the baby is there and everything is ok because I was about to leave on a trip for my work. Also during all the bleeding episodes I had tons of ultrasounds (mostly transvaginal) and now I wonder if the ultrasounds caused something. With my 1st baby I only had the 20 week U/S and 1 level II ultrasound because I had a false positive AFP rest but these were so much later in the pregnancy. I've been reading about the safety of ultrasounds on this board and I didn't even know before that the use of U/S is contreversial. With my next pregnancy I will definitely take more charge and not have ultrasounds done other than the 20 week one. I also read after that transvaginal ultrasounds are not recommended with placenta previas and that's what I had done constantly...did the doctors not now that????
With my next pregnancy I'm considering using a midwife and going back to the basics of having a baby without all this medical stuff. It almost seems like it's too much and causes unnessary worry. If I'm not going to use a midwife I'm definitely going to change the OB.