The Best Laid Plans of Mice, Men, & Me
Despite giving birth in the hospital, I've always tried to keep the experience as natural as possible. I refuse epidurals, have signed off on induction, and don't care for unecessary intervention that is done more for the sake of convenience than anything else. We've grown accustomed to signing paperwork that releases hospitals from legal action, and have tried to avoid some of the extraneous details present in such a setting.
Of course, our ability to maintain this has been due to the fact that despite delivering nearly 2 weeks late with two of our babies, they showed no signs of distress, and all was well. If there was any indication of trouble that couldn't be helped apart from intervention, then we'd toss natural birth out the window for the sake of the baby's health and would be rightfully thankful that we're blessed with such easy access to medical care. I have fairly short, very intense labors with no complications thus far, so when we finally moved back into an area that had a "local" homebirth midwife (albeit almost an hour away), I was excited to pursue a home birth.
Baby Buster, dear Baby Buster, you may foil all my plans!
(But he or she sure is cute, huh! And smart as a whip, too!)
I'm 21 weeks, and we found out at my first ultrasound yesterday that I have almost total placenta previa, as well as low amniotic fluid levels. The fluid levels I should be able to help along by chugging a gallon of water a day (you thought pregnancy bathroom visits were frequent before!), but the placenta previa can't be altered through my actions, apart from the most efficacious action of all-- prayer. If the fluid levels stay this low, there's a good chance that Baby Buster will show signs of distress later in pregnancy, and I'll have to either be induced or have a c-section. If the placenta is stubborn and refuses to attach higher as my pregnancy progresses, then we'll have no choice but to have a scheduled c-section, which, in that case, would be the only way to protect the baby and mother's health. Placentas do quite often attach higher as the pregnancy progresses, but it's not a sure thing, and I'd really, really like to avoid a c-section. If you understand my desire and feel like doing so, please join me in prayer for my...um...placenta. There. I've done it. In a public forum, I've repeatedly typed out a word that I don't even like speaking aloud. PLACENTA!
When we were thinking about birth options, I asked the Lord to clearly let us know if a home birth would not be the best thing for the baby's health or mine, so if things stay the same through the end of the pregnancy, that's His clear hand, and I will be thankful to hold our wee one safely delivered via a c-section. I'd like for things to change, though, so that we can continue to give birth safely as we have in the past, or better yet, in our own home.
Anyway, I'll call the homebirth midwife today to let her know, because our original desire may be out of the picture for this baby. If the placenta does decide to stop living such a sedentary lifestyle, which I hope it does, then it may happen too late in the pregnancy for me to transfer to homebirth care. We'll see. I guess Baby Buster must really love hospital food...
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*As a complete aside, if you're interested in the topic, either because you think home births are wonderful or because you think home births are wacky and irresponsible, here's a great article published in the British Medical Journal that compares low-risk hospital births and low-risk home births.
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And, because we love this baby, here's Buster's striking profile, with a knee bone stretched to the little chest.
25 comments :
I will certainly be praying, Abigail :)
-Long-time-lurker-
~Mollie A.
I also will be praying, Abby.
Deirdre's pregnancy also had issue with placenta previa. That ended up with Mom in the hospital for the last month of pregnancy and a c-section, so we in Purdyville know something about the concerns you are facing.
Woah. Is there something in the water?!!? My sister just found out she has this too!
I will be praying for you, Busterbabe and all internal organs, stubborn or not.
So glad you have such a wonderful outlook and hopeful. I tend to over-worry things to the point of ridiculous.
Praying, praying...
Ps. LOVE ultrasounds. Seeing baby, even in a blurry, computer screen state is an amazing thing-something that makes me glad we live in the age in which we live.
Were the girls present and accounted for? If so, did they enjoy the show?!
I had placenta previa with Anna and after a whole second trimester of NO SEX- which was truly awful- it fixed itself as my uterus expanded and moved her up under my ribcage where she would kick me to, I think, both of our delights for the ensuing months!
--Dani
Wow, that was a fascinating study.
I've got a million-bajillion (not really) questions I want ask you, having kept up on every nitty-gritty detail with Mom and Deirdre. Though maybe you don't want to answers questions of the nitty-gritty type.
I don't have any problem with saying placenta in public---placenta, placenta, placenta---but you should see me blush when I say uterus. *blush* Sorry.
I think one of the most striking and sobering things was seeing the mortality rates (regardless of route of care). It reminded me once again of how gracious God has been in watching over all the pregnancy/births over here. When you only have one or two children, a one percent mortality rate can seem ridiculously low, and it may hardly enter your thought. When you are one of 12 children, you realize, statistcally speaking, at least one of you "ought" to be dead, and "one of you" is not a nameless statistic.
In entirely and totally unrelated thought, our washing machine is being rather stubbornly broken. This is not pleasant. Attempts to cajole it into cooperation have been futile. Drat, and all of that.
Foot-in-mouth disease. 1 out of 10 would be indicative of a 10% mortality rate. But it's still very sobering, and still a reminder of God's grace.
Thanks for your prayers! I do and will continue to appreciate any that you send out. I do anticipate the placenta becoming cooperative when it finally realizes the grisly alternative to movement, but I'll try not to bank all my hopes on it,, just in case it ignores me to the end. (Yes, it's creepy to speak as if one's placenta is an entity. AHHH! I just wrote it two more times!!!)
Rebecca,
No one under 12 is allowed in the ultrasound room here. Bah! I had hoped they could see Baby, too, but they stayed with my Dad in the waiting room while John and I watched Buster's ceaseless squirms.
Dani,
NONE?!?! Anna's safe and natural arrival was well worth the cost, though!
Titi,
Don't you ever dare type THAT WORD on my blog. I'll ban you for life. Of course, I really won't, but after multiple pregnancies, I'm just now becoming comfortable with speaking THOSE WORDS out loud. Silly, but true. With Millie, I referred to all birthing parts as "my belly."
And, yes, whether one in ten or one in one hundred, God's grace is evident. I recently attended a service in which my friend from high school was speaking. He's the one who just recently battled Stage 3 testicular cancer, and someone sang a song before he spoke that drew from the scripture comparing human lives to grass, stripping away our utter frailty. I nearly wept sitting next to his wife and seeing both of them, young people in their twenties, with tears streaming down their cheeks. Death is inevitable and could come at any age, at any time. Sometimes, Death's presence seems like the inexplicable, cruel joke, and, at other times, the fact that God reaches out His preserving hands is the inexplicable, sobering, and comforting fact.
Is it hard to keep an appetite when your belly is full of all that water?
You're kidding, right? I know for a fact you visit buildabelly, and I wouldn't let a minor thing like a gallon of water keep me down! Seriously, though, it moves through me so quickly that it doesn't affect my appetite at all. Apart from early pregnancy blahs and sicky bugs, I don't know of many things that DO affect my appetite... :)
Wow - I will definitely be praying that Ms. P will gird up her loins and get in shape! Here's to plans and hopes and a dose of the Lord's discernment.
Oh Dear Abigail, one more reason the two of us have to get together! I can definately relate to your pregnancy issue as I have the exact same one! I have never wanted a home-birth, since I have complicated pregnancies, HOWEVER, I cringe at the thought of a C-Section, even if I do know that it very well may be inevitable for our baby girl's safety and my own. I never put "C-Section" in my rein of thinking since I just assumed I would give birth "naturally" (or as naturally as possible at least)
In Any Case, I will DEFINATELY be holding you in my prayers as well!!! Sending a hug your way, even if our bumps get in the way :)
We will be praying for you and baby, Abby!
For what it is worth, I have had a very low lying placenta with 3 out of 4 of my babies, and each time it moved up and out of the way. This isn't quite the same as almost total placenta previa, but we'll never discount the power of prayer. :)
Yes, I, for one, am very thankful for the provision of hospitals. If Matthew had been a homebirth, he might not be here today.
praying for you!
my prayers, too.
Ooooh! I also hadn't yet looked in on shotsnaps to find that we'd posted womb-side pics on the same day. Baby Buster looks beautiful and perfect, and my prayers are added to the many. I had to section with the twins. The hospital where I had Griff, and where new babe will make an appearance, Lord willing, doesn't even offer drugs for vaginal birth, and my experience with a natural birth was so incredible that, despite still having a herniated umbilicus from a twin-sized delivery, we're trying for a V-bac. I'm told that if the baby isn't a nice small one, then we'll have to section this time too... One reason I really don't want to go into labor somewhere between Kalacha and the 18 hours to the hospital! I understand your worries, as a mom who wants to have more babes, Lord willing. Natural, vaginal birth after C-section is a little more complicated. Mid-wives are amazing, and a home birth would be a very special thing. I pray the Lord allows it!
Congratulations, again, on the sixth member of your beautiful family!
Abigail, Your placenta will gladly be added to our prayer list.
We had a home birth completely planned out for Phoebe. I even had a tub set up and ready to go in my bedroom. But, when my labor started my midwife was delivering some one else. The back up midwife had to deliver me in the hospital. Bummer.
It wasn't meant to be this time.
p.s. that is one cute buster.
Hope you are feeling well.
Sandy,
After the twins, my sister also now has a bellybutton hernia, and she's also shooting for a VBAC! Must be something about skinny people having two in there...
I don't know what it's like in Africa, but without complications from the caesarean that would make a VBAC impossible, they are common enough here for the mothers who wish them (and who have sympathetic midwives/doctors). Back in the day before the medical profession changed their tune about the safety of VBACS, my aunt had a c-section with her first four children and then went on to have four others naturally, so if I have to have a c-section, I hold out hope! :)
I'll be praying for you on your long journey and that the Lord smooths those bumps out or makes the baby jump in tune! Either way, I pray that your labor begins post-bumps and ends safely with your new babe cradled close.
Grace,
GRRR! That must have been really disappointing. And, yes, I'm feeling pretty good, thanks!
Abby-
I am praying for your placenta- a lot! And also I am praying for your uterus. And now I will start praying for your cervix, birth canal, and vagina.
(tee hee)
But really,I will, and you are beautiful and strong and if you erase this comment, I will understand.
Your comment made me shudder and laugh simultaneously, and I'd never erase a comment that nice, despite the unmentionable WORDS.
*And in my previous comment, I was unclear. By "the medical profession changing their tune," I meant that though they used to advise against them, it's now been shown that there is often no need to repeat a c-section, unless there are complications that make it necessary.
i too, have been praying that said placenta perks up and plods upward to proper position. no, seriously. keep us updated, and keep drinking.
Water. Keep drinking water.
Sorry; couldn't resist!
Smartmouth.
Seriously, though, thank you both for your reminders! I haven't had much water today, so I'm off to have a quart or two before bed...
I've always found it amusing that Toyota decided to name one of its minivans the Previa. Whenever I see that on the back of a car I think of placenta previa. One of the hazards of being a nurse, I guess...I see medical terms everywhere!
I will be thinking of you and the little one, and urging that placenta to move up and out of the way!
I'll be praying too...I did a lot of research on homebirth/water birth in college, and it does seem like such a great idea...if we're ever blessed with a pregnancy, I'd be water birth all the way! But obviously, a baby's health is of most importance...I'll be praying!!
Also, I'm just curious--my parents have friends that do home births, and I think she is a nurse mid-wife, and they live out in your neck of the woods...I think her name is Denise Moyer? Just thought I'd check...I'm finding it's a very small world sometimes. :)
Anyways, you and baby Buster will be in my prayers!
Abby,
You've been in our thoughts and prayers since you shared this news with us on Saturday evening.
May the Lord choose to answer these prayers and give you a natural birth if not a homebirth this time.
Michelle, I'd be interested in more information about the lady you mentioned who homebirths and is a midwife. Abby & I are cousins and live in the same vicinity. My husband and I are planning/praying for our 4th homebirth in November. If there were ever a need to find a new midwife I'd love to have a contact ready!
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