So, let’s begin this new adventure together by going back to where it all started, my pregnancy. As a family blog now it’s only right we commence at this stage and I’ll catch you up on how it all went. I’m going to attempt to summarise it into this one blog post but it may be long.
TW – topics will be spoken of that may cause upset to some.
So, I fell pregnant back in April time and found out in May. The first few weeks were lovely but very much crammed with anxiety about things going wrong. After booking an early reassurance scan but being too early to see a heartbeat that terrified me into convincing myself things were going to go wrong at that point. My first midwife was dreadful in all honesty she made me feel like utter crap for my weight & again seemed quite convinced I’d lose the baby prior to my 12-week dating scan with the NHS. So, you can already see the tone of my pregnancy, right?
Well, at 12 weeks I opted for the genetic screening and already had a feeling this was going to come back with something. During my 12-week scan, the lady informed us my baby’s NT (fluid back of the neck) had increased to 9.10mm which should be 3.4mm or less. She explained this could imply Down Syndrome &/or a heart condition. After my blood tests the following day I received the phone call to notify me I was being referred to Fetal Medicine and I had a 1 in 3 chance of having a baby with Down Syndrome. I was scared very scared of the future felt quite uneasy I was so frightened of losing my baby more than I was intimidated of her having Down Syndrome.
My Fetal Medicine will get its own blog in all honesty as it’s the root cause of my trauma. However, 20 weeks came when we had to have our cardiology scan and we were told she would more than likely need open heart surgery due to potentially having a medium size VSD. Again we knew heart conditions were exceptionally typical with DS babies it didn’t necessarily surprise us but we were really reassured that things would be okay. During the same appointment, it was spoken of about a Cystic Hygroma which has a hideous survival rate that was my greatest worry. My baby had a 5% chance of survival which then improved after 28 weeks if we made it. I can’t articulate how my mental health was during this pregnancy but I had to get up and keep going for the sake of my baby.
At 28 weeks we had our follow-up appointment which ended up being extremely positive with all of the above getting cleared! We then got discharged from Birmingham Fetal Medicine but then back to Coventry’s due to Liara’s growth not being where it should be as she was tiny and my blood flow from my placenta through my umbilical cord to Liara was raised. This then boosted our risks of stillbirth. With this complication added into the combination, my appointments went from one every now and then to twice weekly CTG and Doppler scans and every two weeks growth scans. By this point, I was convinced I was never going to meet my baby alive.
35 weeks came and we got the all-clear from Fetal Medicine altogether and were given a timeframe for the birth which HAD to be 37 weeks. So, the next two weeks consisted of a lot of preparation for my C-Section which is another blog all in itself.
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So, there’s a kind of overview of my pregnancy and how it left me battered mentally. I will talk about my mental health further in another blog. If you’re going through a high-risk pregnancy yourself know it’s okay and you are absolutely not alone. During my pregnancy, this kind of blog was precisely what I needed to help me see I weren’t alone.
Let’s catch up again soon x
