A Miscarriage and NICU Story by Paris Booton
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At MyBump2Baby, we feel that it’s so important to raise awareness and offer support to parents going through tough times. We are honoured to share this misscarriage and NICU story with you, written by Paris Booton. This is an incredibly emotional story.
A Miscarriage and NICU Story by Paris Booton
+Positive Pregnancy Test again
“Consult your doctor if pregnant or breastfeeding” on the box of some medicine made me take a pregnancy test. Of course I wasn’t pregnant, I told myself. The times after the miscarriage didn’t count. + Positive. For a second I wondered whether I had really lost the baby before, but I knew that wasn’t true. Anxiety hit me that this baby wasn’t alive. My partner booked in for a private scan. There they were, my perfect baby. Already you could see the arms and legs in the 3D scan they did for us.
This helped for a week. Then thoughts began to creep into my mind: “will I have a baby at the end?” and “is baby okay?” but the worst was the overwhelming feeling something was wrong. Throughout the whole pregnancy. That overwhelming, strong and intrusive feeling.
I kept the pregnancy fairly under wraps so if I did lose the baby again I wouldn’t have the pain of some well meaning soul asking about a pregnancy that had ended. I didn’t tell the extended parts of my family until I was around 25 weeks. Very few knew until after the birth.
But this made it harder when I was struggling with Pelvic Gurdle Pain (PGP) and a toddler. I had little to no support from outside immediate family. So it was easy within this loneliness to get lost in the strong and overwhelming feelings. I’d get lost in the ways I was going to lose this baby.
The scans of my baby were positive
The 12 week scan came. The 20 week scan came. 33 weeks pregnant and baby had a heartbeat. Maybe I’d have a baby. I’d experience some clear fluid. I asked the stand in midwife and she told me that it was likely my ‘waters’ but small leaks reseal. I am an antenatal teacher, I’d never read about the resealing and likewise I didn’t read that it didn’t exist either.
I remember thinking that it’s just more wrong with me, it seems as though baby was fine. I mentioned it again at my 35 week appointment and was sent straight into hospital. “It’s only clear discharge” I told myself. But the test came back positive and they viewed a pool of amniotic fluid. Baby was still fine. But they gave me steroids to be safe.
I was to be discharged the next day, but routine observation on the baby needed to be done so down I went to the maternity assessment unit. Laying there on my back, a midwife came over and said “We just need you to stay on the monitor a bit longer”. I looked at the heartbeat and it was taking big dips and taking a long time to recover from the surges I was having. Being induced at 37 weeks was no longer recommended between everything, induction at 36 weeks was recommended.
Mother’s instinct
Turns out that feeling of reduced oxygen over my brain when laying down wasn’t just affecting me, it was affecting my unborn baby too. Mother’s instinct was right – there was something wrong.
My partner and I debated over what to do, I told him: “I could go over all the statistics, all the facts but there was a reason my intuition kept telling me something was wrong…”
So I was induced but we went slowly, like I wanted. I was respected, listened to and in the end I had a 5/6 hour labour from the first set of regular contractions to birth of baby. It was the healing birth I wanted after my traumatising first. I thought we could just leave.
We found out my placenta had began to detach from the uterine wall, there was a chance that if I had gone to 40 weeks plus that the placenta would have fully detached and I wouldn’t have had a baby. I am so amazed at the power of a mother’s intuition.
It’s a boy!
But then baby was wheezing. He (I found at the sex at birth and he was a boy!) couldn’t breathe so wouldn’t feed. My partner went with our son as he got a cannula fitted in case he needed antibiotics and I was told he’ll be back in about 10 minutes or so. An hour passed and they didn’t come back.
I finally got a call off my partner as I lay in my own blood that our son was in an incubator, on oxygen. With all my strength I tried to stand up, but I hadn’t recovered from PGP. I couldn’t get to my son. I had a panic attack on the bed. The midwife who birthed Alex came in to check on me, she sat with me until I calmed down even though her shift was over and told me she would get someone to find out what had happened and get me up there.
I’ll never forget the first time I saw my 6lb 13oz tiny baby in the incubator. I felt my heart in my throat. I remember being told that there wasn’t much difference between 36 weeks and full term. Baby will be fine. He didn’t look fine with all those cables over him.
My baby was back at the hospital
He managed to recover quickly and was out of the hospital by day 3. He was readmitted on day 5 for severe jaundice. He needed a blood transfusion but they gave him a chance on a 360 degree blood light. His levels were up and down. During this time I read what can happen with high levels of jaundice. That anxiety was constant for the 3 days he was in hospital.
He was under the hospital for jaundice until he was 6 weeks. He’s fine now, he’s big, he’s strong.
The effects of my birth
But I’m not. I keep picturing finding him dead. I keep hearing the beeping of the monitors. I remember parts of his hospital stay so vividly. I’ve been diagnosed with PTSD, postnatal depression (PND) and postnatal anxiety (PNA). My 3 year old keeps asking if her brother will go back to hospital. She sleeps in the same room to make he doesn’t go back to the hospital. We’re not fine.
By Paris Booton
https://www.facebook.com/sunflowerfamiliesmore/
Hi, I'm Emma and I'm MyBump2aby's family law, protection and financial editor. I'm passionate about better-informing parents on their choices when it comes to family law and family protection and financial matters.
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