January 20, 2012

Miracles

*L&D unit, wee morning hours, mom presents in labor.

Mom: This child is my miracle baby

Nurselochia: Yeah?

Mom: Absolutely. We tried for year for a baby. Finally we had our daughter and we were on top of the world. But we wanted her to have a sibling. Someone to share life with. And we felt like our family wasn't quite complete. We wanted another child. So we tried, and tried and finally we got pregnant. Then I lost it. So we tried again. And again I lost the baby. This happened 3 times and I finally told my husband that I would try one more time. But if I miscarried another child, I couldn't do it again. We gave it another go. And I was happy but terrified when that second line came up. We waited until I was about 8 weeks to see the doc. We went in, both of us on edge and Doc did a sono to verify that I was pregnant. We saw the baby...but there was no heartbeat. No blood flow to the baby. We were devastated. Doc suggested we go home and give my body time to naturally miscarry. He wanted to see me back in a week just to check on me and we'd go from there if nothing was happening. I didn't want a D&C. So we went home and cried and started praying that God would allow my body to do what it had done with the 3 prior losses. But nothing happened. We went back a week later and saw Doc. He did another sono to see if anything was starting to happen, and the look on his face told me nothing had. He looked at me and said "I don't know how to tell you this..." and I interrupted "I know, I can tell nothing is happening". He said "No, that's not it at all. Here, look here". So I looked at the screen and there was this little flickering where there hadn't been a week ago". Doc said "See? This baby is alive. I don't understand it, but look at that!" And here we are, 40 weeks and I'm going to get to hold this little boy that I thought I'd never have!


I wasn't sure why her doc would have done another sonogram after the initial but I've never worked in an office before and that early pregnancy stuff I'm not so good with. I thought maybe she didn't quite understand everything, maybe she had been too early to see a heartbeat and that's why her doc wanted to recheck in a week. I also knew at 8weeks there should be a heartbeat. I also had no reason to doubt her. It just seemed so unlikely. I was skeptical until I looked at her prenatal record the office sent over. And right there, documented in this pregnancy history just as she had told me. "IUP at 8w. No cardiac activity noted." And then an entry that estimated gestation to be 9 weeks with a healthy heartbeat, followed by a long list of appointments that outlined her prenatal care, and verified that her dates were absolutely correct. Her doc affirmed her story at delivery. Maybe there was a more logical explaination as to what happened. Maybe they just "missed" the heartbeat, etc. But I choose to believe that they didn't miss anything, that this truly was a miracle. Why question something that had such a positive outcome? There wasn't a dry eye in the L&D department that night. A prayer was said as this little boy entered the world screaming and healthy. Very much full of life.

Who says God doesn't perform miracles?

8 comments:

Kate said...

I've actually heard a couple similar stories on various blogs and message boards. It's insured that I wouldn't do anything to help a miscarriage along in that sort of situation unless it was medically necessary (because I had an infection or something like that).

Jessica said...

Beautiful story!

TripMomma said...

I love a happy ending,er...beginging :)

The Deranged Housewife said...

This problem made the news recently: that women were suspected of miscarrying (when they really weren't) and were sent for a D&C of a viable baby. They just tried to find the heartbeat too soon, apparently. Kind of ironic - considering the technology that's supposed to be wonderful and life-saving in pregnancy can do just the opposite, unintentionally.

So happy this mama decided to listen to her intuition and just let things happen.

Anonymous said...

I am not in the OB field, but when I had my miscarriage, my doctor did not want to do anything until my blood work showed that my HCG levels were indeed dropping and absolutely nothing before I had a second ultrasound to confirm the miscarriage... She mentioned that my dates could be off (I knew they weren't), and told me "ethically, medically and personally, I will not give you any medication to speed up the process until I am completely sure that it is a miscarriage".

Nurse Lochia said...

Im pretty sure that's why her OB told her to come back in a week. To confirm and to give her body a chance to do it on it's own. He's known for his patience and his patients and us nurses love him for that.

Pietrowski's of North Andover said...

Thank you for sharing this story! Warmed my heart!

Nurse and Hospital Stories said...

Truly a miracle indeed. God actually makes miracles, eh.

Cheers,
Peny@nurse shoe