Mother's intutition kicks in!!

I was 28 weeks pregnant, sitting outside with friends, sipping de-caff iced tea, when my baby began kicking like crazy. I usually loved to feel him kick, so I stayed in the same position, to feel him some more. But, suddenly, his kicks got violent and hard. They hurt and I jumped up and rubbed by belly. Then, the kicks stopped. I commented, "that was weird" and tried to continue my conversation, but I became overwhelmed with a sense of dread and started crying. I called my sister and tried to explain what I was feeling. She called a friend who was a nurse and asked her to give me a call. The nurse reassured me that if the baby was still moving, he was fine. He was still moving, albeit very softly and not very frequently. I could not shake the feeling that SOMETHING was wrong. The next week, I lost the mucus plug. I went in to triage weekly, because the baby barely moved (once every 4-6 hours). But, each time, they gave me cold juice, found his heartbeat and sent me home. At 31 weeks, I went into full labor and had to spend a week in the hospital on mag sulphate. I spent weeks 32-36 on bed rest with terbutylene. Still, the baby barely moved. I stopped the meds at 36 weeks and as soon as the last dose wore off, the labor started again. I went to triage and they did a bio-physical profile on the baby, which he failed, so they decided to do my c-section (he was a footling breech) then, a month early.

My son was born with the cord wrapped, tightly around his neck, five times and once around his shoulder. When the doctor tried to pull him out, he slipped out of her hands, because there wasn't enough cord left to reach. The cord was so tight, that she had to wedge her fingers between his neck and the cord, just to cut it. He had to be resusitated. His intial Apgar score was 2. During the rest of the surgery, the doctors marveled at what they'd seen. Getting more and more anxious, I said, "well, it's not unprecedented is it?". To that, my doctor said, "oh I've seen it before, but never on a live baby". My son's cord was so compressed, that it was half the thickness that it should have been. He was skinny and had low blood sugar, but was otherwise declared healthy.

I later learned that death from cord accidents are far more common that most people realize. Most deaths occur, unexpectantly, between 38-40 weeks gestation. Most doctors will tell you that there's nothing that can be done, because there are no symptoms. Yet, most moms can look back and recall a moment of sudden, increased dramatic kicking in the baby, before settlling down to much less movement. Increased research into cord accident deaths and have found that the death occurs slowly, over several hours or days. There wasn't one mention in the baby books, or from my doctor, that a "sudden, dramatic" increase in kicks, could be just as alarming as a sudden decrease in kicks. Most doctors still believe that these deaths occur suddenly, too quickly to do anyting about it. But, new research shows that may not be the case.

I was told, over and over again, that everthing was fine. But, I continued to feel that something was not right and continued going to triage, even though I felt foolish, because after the 8th or 9th time being sent home with juice, you start to feel pretty stupid. I credit my amazing doctor's thoroughness and intuition for saving my son's life. She could have taken a "wait and see" approach for another weeks or so, but I believe that had we waited any longer, I would have lost him.

I too, believe that mother's intuition is powerful and should be listened to.

I totally believe it. I have that with my daughter all the time. In fact just today I was hugging her and I felt a yucky stomach but it felt different that mine would have if my stomach hurt. So I asked her if her tummy hurt and sure enough it did. So often I will be thinking something and she'll comment on my thought or answrwe the question. Or she'll hum a tune I had in my head. I always thought it was a strange coincedence, but then i saw a dicumentart on TV on this very subject and the mother-daughter pairs said the same thing. Pretty cool!

I do to.

When I was pregnant with my son who's now 8 months old, I started to have some issues with itching like crazy. My OB who was the same OB I had used the yr before with my daughter, told me that it was normal and is part of pregnancy. I went in around 28 weeks crying saying that I could not handle the itching. I felt as if I were going crazy. I was turning into a maniac itching. That visit a test showed I indeed had cholestasis of pregnancy and gallstones and they sent me to a general surgeon to see about having my gallbladder removed while still pregnant. We ended up waiting. At 35 weeks I had a panic attack about the itching, at this point I was bleeding on my arms and I had just freaked out. I was going nuts. I went in and saw another Dr in my OB's office b/c my OB was out of town. He gave me ambien, atarax and methylprednisone and sent me home to call my DR on Monday when he was back in town (that was a Sunday). I was so persistent and I know I bugged the (inappropriate term) out of my OB but Monday I called and his nurse said I could come in that Thursday for my reg app. I reluctantly agreed. Frustrated about an hour later I called back and said I was about to have another panic attack if I didn't have a c section that week. They humored me and told me to come on in and they would check me and do an ultrasound. After crying in my DR's office and telling him I couldn't handle the itching anymore that it was he either take out the baby or take my gallbladder out now. I did get the c section the next morning at 7am. While doing the c section the Dr and the nurse looked at each other with a look I had not seen before on my DR's face. They started to whisper and I started to panic. My son was born and when they were stitching me up I ask what was going on. He said that I had a large "window" in my uterus and explained that when he touched it it just ripped right open and my water broke from the tear. He said that I was one lucky lady and that I had some angels doing double duty for my baby and I. If I had not had my panic attacks from all that itching I wouldn't have made them give me a c-section a month early I would most likely had a uterine tear and we both could have died. He said he had never ever seen one that big and he had no idea how I even got as far along as I did with out it tearing open. I think my panic attacks were my mother's intuition telling me that something wasn't right. That and the itching...
Mother's intuition is tricky b/c sometimes we want to put it to that back of our mind b/c we think we might be overreacting. It's so important to pay attention to that "feeling" you get when you know something is not right.

BTW, Mag Drips suck.. Sorry you had to be on one.. I had to be on one for a week with my daughter who is 2 now.. They are the worst!