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It is important to keep in mind the differences between home birth in the US and home birth in other countries, which is fueling some of the anger on both sides here. So here's a rant. In the US, people who are, to be blunt, completely loving unqualified, are allowed to call themselves midwives (and even to get themselves a cute little certification and be licensed in many states) and deliver babies at home. Not shockingly, this contributes to an incredible amount of poor decision making going on during home births and an awful lot of dead and seriously injured babies and mothers who did NOT need to end up that way. In the US there are 3 classes of midwives. The first group are certified nurse midwives (CNM), which are what most people *think* they are getting when they get a midwife. These are people who got a nursing degree and then an additional advanced practice nursing degree and have extensive hands on training in the form of hundreds of births and thousands of hours of patient contact both as nurses and during their midwifery training. These are similar to the midwives found in most other developed countries, and they are the *only* US midwives who would be permitted to practice in those other countries. The second group are the certified professional midwives (CPM). These people can either attend a school or attain their certification through a "practicum" process during which they apprentice under another homebirth midwife. Until recently the latter option did not even require a high school diploma. They are required to attend less than 100 births in order to be certified to attend home births completely unsupervised and in many states with zero backup except to call 911. They are not qualified to work in a hospital setting in any state and most maintain no relationship with doctors or hospitals (or alternately have an adversarial one). Those that attend schools to get their certification are receiving highly suspect training. You can go check out this blog to get an idea of what is happening in the better regarded of these schools: http://www.honestmidwife.com/. It's hard to believe this certification was meant to do much more than trick people into thinking they are getting the experience and training of a CNM with far less investment on the part of the midwife. The final class of midwives in the US are the lay midwives. These people can just hang up a shingle, call themselves a midwife, and start delivering babies. They may or may not receive training of any kind first. They are perfectly legal in a shocking number of states. The end result of this clusterfuck of allowing incredibly unqualified people to perform home births is that home birth is the US is far far less safe than it is billed to be. Even for the absolute lowest risk, most carefully selected women is it *at least* 2-3 times more dangerous for the baby (strictly in terms of deaths) than delivering in a hospital with a CNM (http://whatifsandfears.blogspot.com/2014/03/mana-study-part-3-total-mortality-rates.html, https://olis.leg.state.or.us/liz/2013R1/Downloads/CommitteeMeetingDocument/8585, http://www.ajog.org/article/S0002-9378(14)00275-0/abstract). For women with risk factors, such a twins, VBAC, etc., it can be many times more dangerous (think they aren't doing those? Think again: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25446661). There is evidence that homebirth in the US increases the risk of the baby suffering from a lack of oxygen at birth more than 10 times compared to delivery in a hospital, even when mom is low risk (http://www.ajog.org/article/S0002-9378(13)00641-8/pdfSummary). The obvious solution to these problems is better regulation of the training required of midwives and better integration of homebirth into our hospital system. We know this because that is exactly what makes homebirth in other countries (such as Canada, the UK, and the Netherlands) a relatively safe option. But do midwives and homebirth advocates push for this? NO! They fight against any attempt to regulate them. They fight against being required to carry malpractice insurance that would protect their patients. They fight against any sort of licensing requirements. They fight against being required to have a working relationship with a hospital to provide backup if something goes wrong and a transfer is required during labor. I'm not against homebirth. It's not something I would choose for myself, but it is a perfectly valid choice for plenty of low risk women. The amount of increased risk involved (when midwives are properly trained and homebirth is integrated into the healthcare system) is well within the range of what we allow people to choose from in other medical scenarios. But it drat well needs to be an informed choice, and who is allowed to oversee home births should be very well regulated to protect patient safety. The state of affairs for homebirth in the US is a total shitshow and a lot of people are being completely misled about the level of risk they are taking on, and that is a big problem. So homebirth in the US is, to be fair, a completely different animal than in Canada where Turpitude is making his decision. With that said, for a first time mom, most studies do show increased risk with home birth, even when mom is very low risk. This is often glossed over when studies are discussed, and it's worth keeping in mind. You should also be well-prepared for the possibility of transfer as a first time mom attempting a home birth in any country, since the best way to reduce the risks is to transfer at the slightest sign something is wrong, which means the best outcomes are associated with transfer rates in the 20% or higher range. Transfer can be scary and it's something you want to have thought over so you aren't more thrown by it than necessary if it does happen.
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Aug 26, 2015 17:47
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Yeah, I'd be hesitant for a first delivery home birth for anyone.
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Aug 26, 2015 18:06
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sheri posted:Yeah, I'd be hesitant for a first delivery home birth for anyone. Agreed. I totally get where you're coming from, with the ICU scares (I've followed your transplant thread!) and the worries about the 35 % C-section rates, but even though a low-risk pregnancy probably means that everything will be fine and you'll have a perfectly safe and sound birth, there is still a chance with every birth, and especially first time births, when a number of potential risk factors are still unknown, that something might go wrong, and the scary thing is that things might go wrong very, very quickly, and the potential outcome is so drat horrible that I can't wrap my head around why any first time mum would risk it if they've got a proper maternity ward available to them. Is there some way you could bring the midwife you'd be using at home with you to the hospital, to help you get the kind of birth you want, but in a safer setting?
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Aug 26, 2015 19:29
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Ceridwen posted:So homebirth in the US is, to be fair, a completely different animal than in Canada where Turpitude is making his decision. With that said, for a first time mom, most studies do show increased risk with home birth, even when mom is very low risk. This is often glossed over when studies are discussed, and it's worth keeping in mind. You should also be well-prepared for the possibility of transfer as a first time mom attempting a home birth in any country, since the best way to reduce the risks is to transfer at the slightest sign something is wrong, which means the best outcomes are associated with transfer rates in the 20% or higher range. Transfer can be scary and it's something you want to have thought over so you aren't more thrown by it than necessary if it does happen. Thank you very much for your thoughtful summary! That's more what I expected from this thread than the previous hostility. We are aware of the transfer rate and have no problem with it. Our midwives are extremely competent and our hospital is pretty close. Sockmuppet posted:Is there some way you could bring the midwife you'd be using at home with you to the hospital, to help you get the kind of birth you want, but in a safer setting? Yes, and if we have to do a transfer to hospital she will be with us. Laboring in hospital still sounds very counterproductive to us considering sphincter law and my wife's level of unease and discomfort with the environment and the staff there. Our birth plan is written, though, so regardless of where we end up we expect most of our wishes to be met and will not be emotionally devastated. As you've read in our transplant thread, we are willing to do whatever needs doing! We just don't believe that a hospital is a safer environment to give birth in than our own home. Turpitude fucked around with this message at 20:42 on Aug 26, 2015 |
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Aug 26, 2015 20:35
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Hostility? You asked if a disease known to kill infants could be treated with probiotics on a forum where a man stretching his rear end in a top hat is the mascot. The sphincter law is not a medical law or scientific principle, nor is it grounded in any degree of anatomy or physiology. I wish your wife luck and hope you consider allowing your midwife to deliver your child in a place where timely intervention doesn't depend on traffic lights.
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Aug 26, 2015 22:18
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Wtf is sphincter law anyway?
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Aug 26, 2015 22:25
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El_Elegante posted:Hostility? You asked if a disease known to kill infants could be treated with probiotics on a forum where a man stretching his rear end in a top hat is the mascot. He didn't ask if it could be treated with probiotics. He asked for recommendations for probiotics that could support his wife's gut biome while she's on the IV antibiotics during labour. I can understand the emotion behind wanting to 'protect the innocent', but it still doesn't give you carte blanche to lord your supposed medical degree over people like the plebs owe you absolute obedience. Don't they teach you about patient autonomy in medical school? It sounds like Turp and his wife have done as much as can be reasonably expected to inform themselves of their risks and potential benefits of a home birth, and have made a decision that is right for them at the moment. Let it go.
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Aug 26, 2015 23:00
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El_Elegante posted:Hostility? You asked if a disease known to kill infants could be treated with probiotics on a forum where a man stretching his rear end in a top hat is the mascot. You misread what I was asking and jumped to conclusions, immediately assuming my wife and I were some kind of idiots because you live in a place where people kill their babies by being fools and myopically assuming that everywhere that practices homebirth is just as lovely as Bumfuck, Missouri. I've been through a shitload of infection and know probiotics do not treat infection. I was asking about probiotics for use during pregnancy and alongside the antibiotics which my wife and I were concerned could wipe out her gut flora and possibly that of our infant daughter. We both have a lot of previous experience with antibiotics and my wife works with autistic children. Recent studies are showing powerful links between gut flora and neurological issues, often related to early antibiotic use for things like multiple ear infections in infants. My wife has understandably been concerned with the various factors that could lead to our child being more at-risk for autism, considering the massive increase in autism diagnoses that is not entirely accounted for by new diagnostic criteria; there appear to be numerous environmental and even dietary factors involved. See: Ethiopian immigrants in Toronto, kids in New Jersey, etc. sheri posted:Wtf is sphincter law anyway? Sphincter law is when stress causes a sphincter to close. It's associated with the anal sphincter IE when someone barges in to the bathroom while you are trying to poop and your anus slams shut. It's been noted that in labours where a woman is stressed, her cervix can actually start going 'backward' from discomfort with strangers prodding around in her vagina or stressing over the baby's heartbeat or telling her the labour is going too long. It's pretty simple in practice, the less stressed the woman in labour the happier her cervix will be and the smoother the delivery.
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Aug 26, 2015 23:08
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nyerf posted:He didn't ask if it could be treated with probiotics. He asked for recommendations for probiotics that could support his wife's gut biome while she's on the IV antibiotics during labour. Thank you! I only came in to ask about GBS and whether it was treatable with IV antibiotics at home, at the behest of my wife. We didn't expect to have someone jump up our metaphorical asses assuming we are going to kill our baby and that we were asking about probiotics to treat GBS. That level of hostility over a practice (homebirth) that is both common and accepted, not to mention heavily regulated, where we live was completely uncool and unexpected. edit: also as an update, the second urine test seems to be showing that my wife does not have a UTI caused by the GBS, but she started a nice brand of probiotics anyway to get her gut as healthy as possible since she'll still need the IV penicillin family antibiotics during active labour. Baby is head down and happily pushing her feet against mum's upper belly. We are approaching the point where we will be seeing our midwives weekly, which we both look forward to. We have a hospital bag in the car at all times in case of pre-term labour, and are finishing nesting in our home; I'll be drinking beer and assembling an IKEA crib and wardrobe tonight, which should be the last things we need to do. Turpitude fucked around with this message at 23:20 on Aug 26, 2015 |
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Aug 26, 2015 23:14
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nyerf posted:
Yeah, I get where you are coming from, but you have been so abrasive about it that it isn't really helping anyone.
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Aug 26, 2015 23:46
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Out of curiosity what do you do if you are allergic to penicillin (as well as azithromycin)?
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Aug 26, 2015 23:55
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Alterian posted:Out of curiosity what do you do if you are allergic to penicillin (as well as azithromycin)? When I came to the hospital in spontaneous labor with my first son, I hadn't been told I was GBS positive (I would have been told about six hours later at my scheduled appointment, actually), and because I am allergic to cefaclor (a cephalosporin), the on-call doctor from my ob's practice didn't want to give me penicillin. She prescribed IV vancomycin, which would have been ruled out if I had been also allergic to azithromycin. Some googling suggests that the third-generation quinolones are effective against streptococci, so I guess there's that (and being really, really nervous about side effects), or maybe trying a cephalosporin? (I know I am not allergic to penicillins, so cephalosporin allergy doesn't necessarily mean penicillin allergy, and I assume it works the other way around.)
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Aug 27, 2015 00:38
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After 4 hours of monitoring at the hospital, finally going home. Another appointment with the ob on Friday. Another 24 hour urine sample, and possibility of induction this weekend.
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Aug 27, 2015 01:05
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zonohedron posted:When I came to the hospital in spontaneous labor with my first son, I hadn't been told I was GBS positive (I would have been told about six hours later at my scheduled appointment, actually), and because I am allergic to cefaclor (a cephalosporin), the on-call doctor from my ob's practice didn't want to give me penicillin. She prescribed IV vancomycin, which would have been ruled out if I had been also allergic to azithromycin. Some googling suggests that the third-generation quinolones are effective against streptococci, so I guess there's that (and being really, really nervous about side effects), or maybe trying a cephalosporin? (I know I am not allergic to penicillins, so cephalosporin allergy doesn't necessarily mean penicillin allergy, and I assume it works the other way around.) Its good to know there would be something available if I was ever in that situation! I believe my brother is allergic to cephalosporin (and penicillin), but I'm not certain if I've ever taken it. Its always funny when I do go to the doctor in need of antibiotics and they take a look at my allergies and sigh.
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Aug 27, 2015 01:49
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I have a penicillin allergy & they gave me something else for my GBS, but hell if I know what it was. Anecdotally, I did not have my typical post-antibiotic gut issues or yeast infection after the IV antibiotics. So the probiotics certainly aren't going to hurt, but don't stress if you don't have them.
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Aug 27, 2015 02:23
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Turpitude posted:I was asking about probiotics for use during pregnancy and alongside the antibiotics which my wife and I were concerned could wipe out her gut flora and possibly that of our infant daughter. We both have a lot of previous experience with antibiotics and my wife works with autistic children. Recent studies are showing powerful links between gut flora and neurological issues, often related to early antibiotic use for things like multiple ear infections in infants. My wife has understandably been concerned with the various factors that could lead to our child being more at-risk for autism, considering the massive increase in autism diagnoses that is not entirely accounted for by new diagnostic criteria; there appear to be numerous environmental and even dietary factors involved. See: Ethiopian immigrants in Toronto, kids in New Jersey, etc. I actually did a fair amount of digging around in medical publications to see if any research has been done on intrapartum Penicillin use and gut flora in babies. I found a research done only a few years ago where they compared GBS-free (and thus, Penicillin free) delivered babies, with GBS+ mothers given intrapartum penicillin, and then compared with babies given Penicillin directly (in cases where the mother delivered too fast and was unable to receive the course of antibiotics). It turned out the third group of babies had their gut flora affected significantly, the second group (the one you would be concerned with) had only a very minor difference compared to the first group. So don't worry about the baby's gut flora so much. In our case, my wife did not get enough Penicillin because her labor was too fast and they did not get a full course in. They had us stay in the hospital an extra day just to keep checking on our baby, saw no symptoms, and everything was fine. Also, some people (not research, just anecdotal babycenter complaints) claimed the Penicillin made them more likely to get breast infection or whatnot. My wife is 6 months into breast feeding and has had no issues, thankfully.
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Aug 27, 2015 02:34
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Stoked for my wife's home birth. We've got a midwife (her PCP), another midwife, a doula, and some supportive friends signed up. And we live down the street from our hospital with transfer plans just in case. Everything's hunky-dory.
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Aug 27, 2015 05:36
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Lazy_Liberal posted:Stoked for my wife's home birth. We've got a midwife (her PCP), another midwife, a doula, and some supportive friends signed up. And we live down the street from our hospital with transfer plans just in case. Everything's hunky-dory. Good luck! I bet you guys will have a great experience.
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Aug 28, 2015 00:14
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Hey nyerf - sorry to post in here but I had no other way of private messaging you and I figured since you'd talked about your pregnancy in here it's as private as I'm going to be able to manage. I follow you on fitocracy and I noticed that you made a note about failing heavy sets. I had a similar thing happening when I was weightlifting during early pregnancy and I ended up stopping weights because I started getting lots of odd things happening during exercise that were concerning me like light-headedness, seeing spots, and failing sets on weights that I felt I should have been able to manage. It turned out that most of my symptoms were most likely caused by aenemia, so I thought it might be worthwhile for you to get your iron levels checked? Also, here's some articles that I found really informative and interesting when I was pregnant that you might be keen to read: https://www.stumptuous.com/category/women_stuff/pregnancy_postpartum
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Aug 28, 2015 02:20
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Naw  it's sweet of you to keep an eye on me bee! I appreciate it. I did have my iron levels checked at the gp visit a week and a bit ago and those are fine. The prenatal I'm taking seems to be doing its job. I've got (putrid) fish oil capsules and vitamin D now too. Slightly wondering if I need to find iodine somewhere since the prenatal doesn't have that, but we have iodised salt so it might not be an issue. Thyroid function was normal. No light headedness. Really my only complaint at the moment is being ravenous and starving ALL THE TIME. I'm fantasising about food all the frigging time. I'm trying not to eat the whole world but I feel so goddamned deprived all the time and its worrying because I'm up 5kg already from pre pregnancy weight and nausea is supposed to be holding me back! Frankly failing the squat heavy sets probably had more to do with me being a weak flabby 31 year old who doesn't train as regularly as she should more than anything else. I knew I'd be paying for my measly 2x workouts a week sooner rather than later. I'm trying hard to get that 3rd weights session per week in though. And two long walks a week minimum. I dunno. I have a sinking feeling that if I survive this without my BMI hitting the 35 zone I'll be damned lucky. So, so hungry.
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Aug 28, 2015 04:26
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Well, for what it's worth... I stopped lifting weights around about week 8, I was still on my feet quite a bit up until about week 24, and I was couch-ridden from that point onwards due to constant nausea, aenemia and general exhaustion. My diet wasn't great, while I was eating healthy main meals, I was also eating a couple of biscuits, a few squares of chocolate and crumpets with honey every day. While I didn't feel constantly hungry, I was craving carbs and sugar something fierce. Despite all this, I went from a size 8 to 10, and the difference between my pre and post baby weight was only 5kg. It took me about eight weeks of moderate lifting and diet changes to return to pre baby form and strength. I guess what I'm trying to say is yes, you're going to put on weight. But try not to stress too much about it, your body knows what it's doing. Also keep in mind that if you decide to breastfeed, that in itself will make it easier to lose weight because you're burning like an extra 500 calories a day just through milk production.
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Aug 28, 2015 10:41
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So... I tested positive about a week ago (and 5 days ago, and 4 days ago... haha). Looking at due date calculators and stuff I'm either 4.5 weeks along (if going by ovulation, and I used OPKs so I am fairly certain of conception date) or 5 weeks along (going by LMP). Which I know is "hardly pregnant." I've been taking prenatal vitamins since November of last year. I don't see a huge point of seeing the doctor yet. Honestly I am just kind of scared that I'll go and they'll say "nope, gestational sac, chemical pregnancy, etc". I'm not really having any symptoms besides light cramping/feeling of heaviness in my abdomen, and somewhat sore boobs. I may be having fatigue, but the school year also just started so I've gone from waking up at 9 am to 5:15 am. Who knows. I really want this to be a real and viable pregnancy, but I am anxious that it might not be due to having no huge symptoms and being maybe a bit over 5 weeks along. Anyway, I just thought I'd leave this freakout here.
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Aug 29, 2015 17:31
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All sounds pretty normal for early early pregnancy. Supposedly nausea doesn't starting coming in until 6 weeks at least! If you're really worried, you can have an internal scan at 6 and a bit weeks with a reasonable chance of visualising an embryo and cardiac activity, or they can do serial BHCG tests (levels are meant to double every 48 hours, so if necessary they can chart your hormone rise to help put you at ease). The trouble is it's pretty much a waiting game early on--just keep keeping healthy and distract yourself if need be. That Emily Oster book Expecting Better has a whole chapter on the topic of early miscarriage, complete with chart of miscarriage risk by week of pregnancy which I think is probably something my ultrasound textbooks ought to include so we can tell patients something at least when scan appearances are equivocal. Speaking of which I had a slight scare this morning--woke up to some very light mucus+brown spotting...but then took myself to work and checked and things looked fine! Good heart rate, no sign of a subchorionic haematoma, we even saw it do a little tiny wiggle Guess I should be fine to deadlift later on today! Formal dating scan booked in for Tuesday afternoon, and my bosses know now. I was terrified of how they might react but it was much ado about nothing-- boss congratulated me, and they're going to keep it on the down low so the rank and file don't find out (without actively snooping in my files anyway!).I went and ordered one of those structured baby carriers yesterday too. Probably a bit early but I was/am feeling optimistic!
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Aug 30, 2015 03:23
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I have bled in every one of my pregnancies, and I have two daughters. Scares the crap put of you every time, though!
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Aug 30, 2015 10:13
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n/m
proof of concept fucked around with this message at 06:18 on Sep 1, 2015 |
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Sep 1, 2015 06:08
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Whelp, I'm up 5kg on my pre pregnancy weight. Oh I am so screwed. Even more incentive to keep lifting weights though, I want this baby to have the strongest mama possible! (Admittedly can't compete with one of my 24 year old coworkers half my size who could still squat 90kg and run 10km in her 1st and 2nd trimesters though.) Dating scan matched up exactly with my own counting, which was a nice change- when we date we usually fall short or go over by a day or two. Must be a sign. So far so good on the hush hush front. In between trying to find maternity work-compatible clothes I was looking into what sort of doulas were available in the area and had to stop after reading one too many OTT crunchy granola listings for naturopathic scented candle holy goddess mother placenta printed birthing. Cripes. I really like the idea of having a support person who is not emotionally attached to the birth, or is driven by the potential treatment biases of that obgyn unit, who can reliably advocate for my pre-labour wishes and keep me from losing focus, but I just.. If I can't find anyone I can take seriously I guess we'll just wing it with the midwife we get. I'm more worried about my husband to be honest. He'll have noone to protect him from the kind of horror I become when tired and in pain, heh. On the plus side, looks like the going rate for a doula would be well under the $1k mark around here.
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Sep 3, 2015 09:18
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We're having our first child in about a month's time. I'd like to think that we're about as prepared for this as we can be - we've read up, talked to relatives, listened to parenting podcasts, googled the crap out of anything to do with pregnancies, and are taking parenting classes. Still, I've got this fear that I will have missed something crucial once the baby's here. You other dad goons, is there something you feel you would have wanted to know beforehand, or something you weren't expecting when it came to having a child? For you moms, is there something you wish your partner had known or done during delivery and afterwards?
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Sep 3, 2015 14:17
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Mr. Sunshine posted:We're having our first child in about a month's time. I'd like to think that we're about as prepared for this as we can be - we've read up, talked to relatives, listened to parenting podcasts, googled the crap out of anything to do with pregnancies, and are taking parenting classes. Still, I've got this fear that I will have missed something crucial once the baby's here. You other dad goons, is there something you feel you would have wanted to know beforehand, or something you weren't expecting when it came to having a child? For you moms, is there something you wish your partner had known or done during delivery and afterwards? Probably? Can't really remember what I thought I knew beforehand and what I've learned since. Changing diapers is pretty easy, first time I did it was at the hospital. The delivery was pretty rough, to be sure. The wifi was spotty in places, so it took a while to find a decent connection, and I would rate the cafeteria food as mediocre, at best.
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Sep 3, 2015 15:31
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I'm sure you know this already, but be careful with the weight lifting. Relaxin is no joke. It took a little bit post pregnancy where I felt comfortable squatting because of how my knees felt.
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Sep 3, 2015 19:18
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Mr. Sunshine posted:We're having our first child in about a month's time. I'd like to think that we're about as prepared for this as we can be - we've read up, talked to relatives, listened to parenting podcasts, googled the crap out of anything to do with pregnancies, and are taking parenting classes. Still, I've got this fear that I will have missed something crucial once the baby's here. You other dad goons, is there something you feel you would have wanted to know beforehand, or something you weren't expecting when it came to having a child? For you moms, is there something you wish your partner had known or done during delivery and afterwards? There's not much practical advice I can give because so much depends on the particular type of baby you receive, but one thing that really shocked me in the first few weeks after birth was how much I was affected by hormones. My husband was great because he didn't over-react to whatever extreme emotion I was experiencing that hour, he didn't have huge expectations of me, and he just treated me with kindness and gentleness.
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Sep 3, 2015 20:04
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I was surprised by how much medical professionals disagree with each other about almost everything from labor/delivery on. From two OBs disagreeing about whether I needed a c-section at the foot of my bed (I didn't) to whether my daughter had a tongue tie (she did) to when to introduce solids (a pediatrician in postpartum said if she was really hungry I could mix some rice cereal in with breast milk right away). Also I was surprised that the pediatricians we've seen don't know anything about troubleshooting breastfeeding. One told me to get my baby on a strict feeding schedule when she was 2 weeks old. I'm not saying not to trust your doctor, but it's nice to just be aware when there's controversy over an issue and take the initiative to get a second opinion when you're unsure.
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Sep 3, 2015 20:16
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Pretty sure I am having a miscarriage. Had a tiny bit of spotting yesterday, having some actual blood today. After being robbed at gunpoint yesterday, this has been a pretty lovely week.
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Sep 4, 2015 08:20
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Mr. Sunshine posted:We're having our first child in about a month's time. You other dad goons, is there something you feel you would have wanted to know beforehand, or something you weren't expecting when it came to having a child? Dadgoon here. Be prepared to stand up for yourself and your partner during birth and afterwards, this will happen in ways you will not be prepared for. Whether it's a hospital suggestion or a midwife suggestion or anything or anyone else. Also be prepared to go with the flow, don't believe for a second there is an exact anything when it comes to birth.
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Sep 4, 2015 10:01
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JustAurora posted:Pretty sure I am having a miscarriage. Had a tiny bit of spotting yesterday, having some actual blood today. After being robbed at gunpoint yesterday, this has been a pretty lovely week. My wife had a few scary bleeding a few times and it turned out to be nothing (or rather at least not a miscarriage). But being robbed at gunpoint probably caused your body to undergo some pretty serious stress. Please go to your OB!
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Sep 4, 2015 13:12
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Hi everyone  I'm 16 weeks along with our first. It has been pretty uneventful so far -- nausea and fatigue for 6 weeks straight (but no vomit so I consider that a win), and now I am finally starting to have energy again. It has surprised me just how many things I can't eat while pregnant; giving up alcohol was no problem, but not being able to satisfy my salami craving has been way harder. My doctor offers the Panorama cfDNA test to everyone so I did it even though I'm not considered high risk. However, it came back inconclusive (not enough fetal DNA to test), so I did it again... and again it came back with no result. My doctor kind of just shrugged and said nobody knows why it happens, and since my NT scan was normal I shouldn't be concerned. Of course, irrational pregnancy hormones = I am concerned! Has anyone experienced having these inconclusive test results and then having a totally healthy baby? The other frustrating thing is that I expected to find out the baby's sex via the blood test weeks ago, and now we have to wait 2 more weeks for our initial anatomy scan. I would slightly prefer to have a girl (we have a girl name picked out but stuck on boy name) but I'm convinced that it's a boy because I dreamt it. Has anyone else ever just had a strong feeling about the baby's sex, and were you right?
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Sep 6, 2015 22:25
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Hi_Bears posted:Has anyone else ever just had a strong feeling about the baby's sex, and were you right? We were convinced our baby wasn't gonna have a penis but then the ultrasound confirmed penis. Much less likely we're gonna have a girl now but that's okay!
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Sep 6, 2015 22:56
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Hi_Bears posted:My doctor offers the Panorama cfDNA test to everyone so I did it even though I'm not considered high risk. However, it came back inconclusive (not enough fetal DNA to test), so I did it again... and again it came back with no result. My doctor kind of just shrugged and said nobody knows why it happens, and since my NT scan was normal I shouldn't be concerned. Of course, irrational pregnancy hormones = I am concerned! Has anyone experienced having these inconclusive test results and then having a totally healthy baby? The other frustrating thing is that I expected to find out the baby's sex via the blood test weeks ago, and now we have to wait 2 more weeks for our initial anatomy scan. I would slightly prefer to have a girl (we have a girl name picked out but stuck on boy name) but I'm convinced that it's a boy because I dreamt it. Has anyone else ever just had a strong feeling about the baby's sex, and were you right? Hi_bears, although my results worked I was pretty paranoid that it wouldn't because the higher your BMI, the lower the fraction of foetal cells in your blood and my BMI is fairly high. However even in the normal-BMI population there are some women who just don't get a high fraction of foetal DNA in their blood. It is not indicative of a problem. The percentage increases by something like 0.1% every week after 10 weeks, so chances are if you are unsuccessful close to 10 weeks, it's not really going to work later either, unless you were just borderline with enough cells. It has absolutely no bearing on how healthy or otherwise your baby is. With my first baby, I wanted a girl but I had a feeling he was a boy - not a strong feeling, just a "don't buy anything pink yet" thing. I wasn't upset, just had to readjust my expectations. With this one, I knew with certainty I was pregnant a few days before I even took the test, and I knew it was a girl - which it was. I bought a little set of onesies when I was about 6 weeks because I was so sure it was a girl. I also "knew" she would be born around 38 weeks, so we'll see if I was right about that too. There are some surveys (I won't call them studies) that indicate that "mother's intuition" is right about gender about 70% of the time.
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Sep 7, 2015 03:24
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I thought I was having a boy and I did find out the gender and it was. We didn't tell anyone and actually told them we didn't know the gender. Everyone except my SIL thought I was going to have a girl.
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Sep 7, 2015 04:05
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We're debating finding out- on the one hand there's a part of us that wants to prolong the mystery surrounding the baby as long as possible, on the other we'd only have to come up with one list of names. Admittedly we'd probably just end up with twice as many names anyway lol. If we find out we still wouldn't tell anyone, to try to minimise any preconceptions from the rest of my family. We're planning on raising this kid as gender-equal as we can, too bad unlike Finland we don't have a gender neutral pronoun to use with the child! I suspect we'll probably find out- considering my penchant for having a quick daily look at baby at work I'm sure I'll accidentally glimpse between the legs eventually  I'm resorting to taking daily coloxyl now for constipation. Somewhat fearful that I'm on a one way train to haemorrhoid town  Drinking nearly a gallon of water a day seems to be doing diddly squat, and I'm having half a plate of vegetables with my main meal. Sigh. Even eating a crazy amount of chilli isn't helping induce a more active colon.
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Sep 7, 2015 09:26
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I wanted to know the sex of my baby and my partner wanted a surprise. So my older daughter and I went to the 20 week u/s and found out. We managed to keep it secret, but it was funny because a couple of times he swore I slipped up and said "he" so for a while he was sure it was a boy. I think he considered I might have been faking him out though, because he wasn't too surprised when he got a girl. I also told everyone else I didn't know the sex, because I knew people can't keep their mouths shut. But I'll tell you one thing. Not knowing drives relatives NUTS. The excuse was "I won't know what to buy!" I'm not a fan of pink/blue pastels anyway. Use your imagination! But they kept asking and asking right up until the birth. It was pretty funny. Oh and I suspected all along I was having a girl. But that might be because I kinda wanted one. Big Bug Hug fucked around with this message at 11:55 on Sep 7, 2015 |
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Sep 7, 2015 11:51
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