These issues are very sensitive for mothers who have lost babies and/or who had a scare and almost lost one on the way.
In our second pregnancy we took many preventive measures, I will tell you some of them:
- We are looking for an Obstetrician Gynecologist specializing in high-risk pregnancies.
- We did a cerclage as soon as they let us do it, in my case they waited until 14 weeks of gestation, to ensure viability, correct growth and the baby's heartbeat.
- Visits every two or three weeks at the doctor's request.
- Looking for an activity to distract myself mentally, in my case a master's degree helped me focus on other things.
- Enjoying the pregnancy and we got a dog that accompanied me when I was home alone. Believe it or not, this helped us a lot, they say that it is difficult to have a baby if you have a pet (dogs), I honestly do not agree. "Ariel" our French poodle toy was one of the pillars of recovery to want to get pregnant.
- They did studies with a hematologist and they discovered that a clot could form due to thrombophilia, so every day I had to inject "Heparin" into my belly. And don't worry, this is more than anything so that the blood is more diluted and everything reaches the baby through the umbilical cord.
- She took progesterone by prescription from the doctors, prenatal vitamins and folic acid, every day.
And well, in this second pregnancy everything was going quite well, so when we reached 16 weeks I never imagined that I would have a threatened abortion with the cerclage in place. So they told me to rest and gain every week I could so that the baby was viable, so I had to get strength and be as positive as possible and wait.
As you can imagine from the title of the Blog, going past 21 weeks, which was when I lost my first baby, was the most terrifying thing that could come to my mind. So when I hit 21 weeks, it happened again…
I lost my second baby in the same weeks that I lost my first, taking all possible safety measures. My gynecologist told me and I never forget "I think we took a risk with you and we should have done more."
With this I want to leave you as a message that no matter how much you think you have everything under control, not everything is controllable. Once again my cervical incompetence played a trick on me and if I'm honest this shook my faith, how could this happen to me again and why. It definitely wasn't my fault, I did the best I could, but I don't control this, so once again I had to heal physically and mentally, for my good and that of my family.
Someday I will tell you more details about this second loss, for now my message to all the moms who are going through a similar situation, with threats of abortion, injections, pills and everything else:
Do not compare your pregnancies with that of other moms, each body is different and each pregnancy is different, even if you have already had or lost a child. With this I want to tell you not to lose hope, or get discouraged, if I had followed that path of negativity, believe me that I would not be here telling you what happened to me, that I do it in order to help you see that after so much suffering trying to be a mother, with a lot of effort, patience, love and good doctors, everything is possible.
Regarding the injections, in my case I had to inject myself with heparin every day and although it was a minimal needle and I don't like punctures, I had to gather my courage and make the effort, I got some bruises near the area of the injection and I had to be careful not to hit or cut myself to avoid heavy bleeding or more bruising, other than that I had no other problems with these injections that I stopped once I lost my second baby.
The detail with the heparin at the time I got the contractions at 21 weeks is that they couldn't give me the epidural or at least that's what the doctors told me at that time. So they put me to sleep during the whole process and this time the emotional blow was really strong, a lot of emotions.
A month after I was discharged, we took a trip and as a goal we set ourselves the goal of reaching the Pulpit Rock in Stavanger , the cover photo is on the way to the top, a hike of more than 4 hours in Norway, believe me that After achieving that one month after losing my baby at 5 months pregnant, without training and totally out of shape, that's when I realized that if I could handle it, I could do whatever I wanted.
If we could, surely you can too. I encourage you to look for a goal that changes your life after losing a baby or if you have had a threatened abortion, take care, listen to your body and never think that you are imagining symptoms or exaggerating, only you know yourself and you know what is normal for you And why not.
My last recommendation is that you have to have a doctor who gives you security, even if it's by reference from a friend or sister, if you don't like it, look for one who makes you feel safe, who loves his profession and who knows what what are you doing.