So everything was smooth sailing and I was booked in to the birth centre under the care of 3 beautiful midwives. My 20 week scan couldn't have been more perfect- healthy baby, all parts there and accounted for and on the 50th centile. Plcenta seemingly fat, healthy and in a good position. Everything was going to plan.............
It was around the 30 week mark, i think, that my midwife first commented that my fundal height (the measurement they take from the top of your pubic bone to the top of your uterus that gives a rough idea of how the baby is growing) was measuring about one week behind. They assured me it was nothing to worry about yet, just something they'd keep an eye on. By around the 33-34 week mark they were concerned enough to recommend I have an ultrasound as it appeared the baby wasn't growing as expected. My gut told me bubs was ok as she was kicking like an Italian soccer player and causing a ruckus in there, but we were guided by our midwives and booked in to have one.
We went through the public hospital and had what they call a 'health and wellbeing scan'. The sonographer gave immediate feedback that everything seemed ok, but that the babys abdominal circumference (AC) seemed small. She clarified that she had had trouble getting the measurement though, so thought it could be bigger than the 7th centile. My husband and I read over and over the report and were like, nah it all seems good- It must just be an anomaly. Our midwife called my mobile when we were in the car on the way home from the ultrasound. I was a little alarmed that she had been hanging out for the results on a Saturday and had called. She voiced some concern about the small AC. After I got off the phone a million things ran through my head and I hadn't thought to ask any of them. When we got home I asked my husband to call our midwife back with our list of questions e.g what would cause this? Why would my baby be potentially starving if the placenta and umbilical cord looked good? Would this mean she'd stop growing entirely and we'd have to have her early? Would I have to be induced, have a Caesar ? Was I going to get kicked out of the birth centre and have a really medicalised birth? My belly started to get butterflies and the worry set in.
We had another midwife appointment to discuss everything again. No one could tell me why my baby was not growing properly. My biggest fear was if the placenta was ok, then was it something genetic? We hadn't had our 12 week scan, so had we missed something? Time for a second opinion! I thought it might just give us peace of mind to have a second scan privately to double check the measurements and make sure the AC was really that small. Our midwives supported us the whole way. We made an urgent appointment to see Dr Carmody, an extremely well respected Obstetrician in Brisbane (we'd had our 20 week scan through his clinic) for the Wednesday.... 3 nights and 4 days of anxious waiting.
As soon as we got to Dr Carmody's, the sonographer looked at the report from the public hospital and said your umbilical cord has a high SD ratio, that's why your baby is small for dates. I was like, what is that? Basically the flow between the baby and I was impaired and so she wasn't getting enough nutrition. The SD ration was above the 95th percentile- which I had seen myself on the report, but I thought that was a good thing, thinking the higher the better. I was wrong. This was the answer I was looking for!! At least we had a reason now, it wasn't that there was something wrong with her genetically, it was our cord!! The sonographer re-scanned me anyway and actually got a worse result for our babys AC. Dr Carmody came in and re-scanned again. Same result. Everything else was looking alright though, my amniotic fluid was well within normal limits, bub was small, but all organs looked functional and healthy, heart was pumping beautifully. Dr Carmody's recommendation: rescan in 10 days and probably don't let me go past dates as the placenta and cord break down the older they get.
Back to our midwives who of course had pulled in the big guns by this point. The head of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Prof Jones, was now reviewing my chart. Prof Jones had a similar recommendation, rescan in 7 days with second daily CTG monitoring (Cardiotocography monitoring is the monitoring of fetal heart beat and uterine contractions) and try and go into labour ASAP. Sure, I'll just go in to labour- easy done :) So much for as little intervention as possible!
I was trying to remain calm for my babys sake and rest as much as I could, but this was proving very difficult not to be anxious about what was happening inside of me. If our baby hadn't moved for a while I'd start poking at my belly saying 'bubba, just let Mummy know you're ok in there'. If someone did that to me when I was sleeping I'd be pretty peeved! I went back to my naturopath who put me on this major regime to support my liver and build bubs up. Protein shakes 3 times daily, dandelion tea after all food and protein (this meant like 6 teas a day) and cut back on the cod liver oil. All this liquid whilst being very pregnant meant extremely frequent toilet stops morning, noon and night. Not much sleep was happening and I was on high alert....... as I guess was our baby.
Each CTG we had was perfect. It was actually nice to hear our babys heart beat for half an hour every second day given our fears. I think it also helped us to bond more. We got to hear her have hiccups through the monitor too which was pretty funny. Around came the next ultrasound a week after the last one. The result was the same, which was actually really good, things hadn't deteriorated. Amniotic fluid good, SD ratio about the same (which actually put it in a higher percentile range as it was later in my pregnancy, so it was marginally worse), AC the same, but our baby had put on the appropriate amount of weight- yey! Dr Carmody was happy enough and recommended the same, a scan in a week and no going post dates. The protein shakes were beefing her up! Off to the midwives to review the report.
This next appointment was where things escalated..............
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