Whats your miracle story?

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Specializes in Ante-Intra-Postpartum, Post Gyne.

An Amazing Story

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What would you do to save your unborn child? On December 14th I got a call from my mother in law that my sister in law was having trouble with her pregnancy. She told me that the night before she got a frantic call from her son, Chase, saying that his wife Melissa who was 16 weeks pregnant at the time had bleeding from her lady parts. Both being very young, were very scared and did not know what to do.

As instructed, they rushed to the Emergency room where they were told that Melissa was having a miscarriage, there was nothing they could do, go home and see her doctor in the morning. I am sure neither of them slept and they were at her Obstetricians office first thing in the morning.

Upon seeing her OB, she was told that the baby had a strong heart rate; in fact, there was nothing wrong with the baby at all. The problem it turned out was that Melissa had an incompetent cervix. At 16 weeks her cervix was already dilating and trying to deliver the baby. Cruelly, the doctor told them to walk to the hospital where he would meet them later to give her pitocin and force an abortion.(As most know walk help labor PROGRESS!) Chase put his foot down and insisted on a wheel chair.

Once at the hospital her OB started to badger Melissa into starting the Pitocin even though there was nothing wrong with the baby. More than likely she would have gone along with what the doctor was scaring her with, but fortunately she has some strong willed midwives and nurses in her new family.

My mother in law, her midwife friend and I showed up at the hospital as soon as we could for support. It was my mother in law's friend who gave the idea for a cervical cerclage to be done.

When the procedure was suggested to her OB he said he would not do such a thing. He said that Melissa had a fever so that meant she had an infection. He said he had to go out of town the next day so he could not wait for the blood test to come back to "confirm" his prognosis of infection, that if we did not start the pit like he wanted he could not help us.

We explained to him that Melissa had spent the weekend with me and I had just gotten over a 102 fever with the flu. He said it was unrelated because he had an IV of antibiotic started. They had only been in her system for about three hours. He said that infection would set in. (After he said she already had one...) He refused to call and find any one that may do the procedure and basically said that because she had not started the pitocin to abort the baby like he wanted he was going to wash his hands of her.

Melissa was scared about the whole idea since the doc had got it in her mind that she would get an infection if they did it and die. We all prayed with Melissa. We asked God that if it was in His will we would find a Doc that WOULD to the surgery. After the prayer Melissa said she wanted the surgery.

My mother in law then contacted her OB who came up of from San fransisco to deliver her twins lady partslly to see if she could help. My mother in law at forty had a surprise pregnancy with twins. No one in our area would deliver her babies lady partslly because they said she was too much of a risk because of the twins and her age. Lucky for us the OB that delivered the twins, lady partslly, had recently moved up north to where we were.

We had to wait for hours, but what seemed like days, until she could get to out of her office and to the hospital to see Melissa. By now her temperature had returned to normal. The situation was explained to her and right away we could tell she was going to be supportive. She said she had a partner from UCSF that had done cerclages in the past and they were successful. She contacted him and he said to fly her down in the morning and he would do the procedure there was no risk of infection, although he was worried about the flight.

They did a sonogram and said that the baby's little feet were hanging down into the cervix and it appeared his little butt was all that was holding him in. I asked the OB if it would be a good idea to give Melissa a catheter since we were trying to keep the baby in over night. She thought it was a good idea and had it ordered.

Once the catheter was in Melissa cried and begged them to take it out. We explained to her that it was for the baby and the nurses gave her a little Morphine to help. While all this was going on our new savor OB had found a local surgeon that had done the procedure in the past on a woman that was even farther along and the baby went to term. (And Melissa's original OB told us no one in the area would do it!)

First thing in the morning the surgery was scheduled. Again, we arrived for support. A few hours later followed by a successful surgery, Chase said something to me that I will never forget. He said, "If we had done what Dr. "xxxxx" wanted Melissa would be at home right now and we would have a baby in a shoe box."

A few hours later when Melissa had come out of surgery and the spinal had worn off, she thanked me for insisting that she get a catheter. She said that over night she had dilated to 10 cm and that if she had gone to the bathroom the baby would have "fallen out."

We knew we were not out of the woods. If the water broke at any time it would be all over. We did have a few scares but everything was going great. Under the care the Ob that did the procedure on her cervix, Melissa was sent down with Chase to stay with some relative near UC Davis. If the baby came after 25 weeks they had the equipment to keep the baby alive, which they do not have in our area.

For a few months Melissa and Chase stayed with her uncle. Her care was taken over by local doctors that instructed her strict bed rest. She was only allowed to get up to go to the bathroom and could only have a shower every three days.

Melissa at about 29 weeks was sent home by UC Davis. They said she was far enough along to be back in Humboldt. Her doc told her it would be best for her to go to at least 32 weeks. Not long after she got home from Davis she was having some pains. It turned out not to be a big deal but they kept her in the hospital for monitoring anyway.

After a few week stay at out local hospital, the medication they gave her to prevent contractions was not working and the potassium sulfate they gave her in an I.V. was not stopping them either. At 12:30 midnight the doc removed the sutures in Melissa's cervix at 32 weeks to the day!

After Noah was born after only a few minuets he was already breathing on room air needing no assistants (He did not even weigh five pounds). Even more amazing was that the Pediatrician told Melissa that it was Neurologically impossible for a baby born so early to have sucking reflexes, no sooner after the words came out of his mouth did Noah start sucking on a bottle!

Noah is now three months old. He is our families little miracle baby! Every time I see him I am reminded how he "wasn't supposed to be here" And he is!

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What a wonderful story! I wish you lived nearby so you could share your story with our high risk antepartum moms. Many of them have similar situations and like to hear about successes!

I feel fortunate to work in an environment where life is respected and women are given the choice to continue a pregnancy. Sometimes surgery is not an option, but if the parents want to try and prolong a pregnancy, it is allowed. I've heard stories of "badgering" by medical personnell to help the inevitable... but that fortunately doesn't happen here.

Best wishes to Noah and your family@!

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Specializes in Psych, Med/Surg, Home Health, Oncology.

That was a beautiful story. Thank you for sharing. My thoughts and prayers go out to you and your family.

Mary Ann

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Specializes in NICU, Med/Surg.
An Amazing Story

Even more amazing was that the Pediatrician told Melissa that it was Neurologically impossible for a baby born so early to have sucking reflexes, no sooner after the words came out of his mouth did Noah start sucking on a bottle!

!

That´s a wonderful story! Thank you for sharing it with us.

I just wanted to say that sucking reflex is present very early in preterm babies (babies drink the ammnoic fluid, swallow it and pee it out again). In the nicu where I work we have had babies gone home as early as 32 weeks breastfeeding fully. Our lactation/nurse guru has done lots of research about preterm babies and their breastfeeding behaviour and what your pediatrician told you is simply old knowledge. In sweden over 90 % of all mothers breastfeed their baby at 3 months and the numbers are almost as high even though they have been through the nicu experience. We never bottlefeed unless mum isn´t going to breastfeed!

:)

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Specializes in Ante-Intra-Postpartum, Post Gyne.
That´s a wonderful story! Thank you for sharing it with us.

I just wanted to say that sucking reflex is present very early in preterm babies (babies drink the ammnoic fluid, swallow it and pee it out again). In the nicu where I work we have had babies gone home as early as 32 weeks breastfeeding fully. Our lactation/nurse guru has done lots of research about preterm babies and their breastfeeding behaviour and what your pediatrician told you is simply old knowledge. In sweden over 90 % of all mothers breastfeed their baby at 3 months and the numbers are almost as high even though they have been through the nicu experience. We never bottlefeed unless mum isn´t going to breastfeed!

:)

Hey your Hospital needs to educate her Ped. That is great that you let premees breast feed. Mellisa had a ding dong for a LC and would not let her breast feed. We tried to get her to ingnore the dingalong and do it anyway. He ended up with nipple confusion, like we said would probably happen, and how he is on a bottle :crying2:

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This is such a wonderful story... Thank you for sharing it. I'm sure there are many women out there that will benefit from hearing this.

I know of a couple of women who have had the cerclage procedure as well, one of them after losing a baby at 22 weeks. Her doc had her pushing at probably 6 cm and ended up decapitating the baby by pulling on its legs. I was there for the whole ordeal, as her support person, and even then, 14 years ago, with no medical experience whatsoever, all I could think was "someone needs to sue this oaf for malpractice." When we arrived at the hospital she was only 3 cm and I really believe her labor could have been stopped, but they didn't even attempt. Anyway with the cerclage, 90 days of bedrest, mag sulfate and a different OB, she went on to deliver a son about a year a half later. Not a miracle per se but it was to her, and to me, with the previous son still pretty fresh in our minds.

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Specializes in NICU, Med/Surg.
Hey your Hospital needs to educate her Ped. That is great that you let premees breast feed. Mellisa had a ding dong for a LC and would not let her breast feed. We tried to get her to ingnore the dingalong and do it anyway. He ended up with nipple confusion, like we said would probably happen, and how he is on a bottle :crying2:

Isn´t preterm babies allowed to breastfeed in usa? Everyone at my nicu including the doctors (we don´t have any LC) are positive to breastfeeding and we all work hard (ofcourse the mums do the hardest work) trying to get the baby on full breastfeeding before discharge.

We have set guidelines about breastfeeding/nutrition at my unit and it states that we can cupfeed babies (instead of bottle) from 28 weeks (the baby obviously being reasonable stable).

We don´t have a set week for breastfeeding. I have seen preemies at 26 weeks and breastfeeding successfully (not full breastfeeding ofcourse but still trying to learn and with their mouths full of milk). :)

After we rebuilt our nicu last year we have 10 rooms (12 intensive care beds and 6 level 2 beds in total) for parents and children. They can stay with their baby around the clock and that surtainly makes it easier to promote breastfeeding (and bonding). Most parents and babies over 30 weeks (they can be on CPAP if stable or on O2 cannula) stay there with the parents taking care of them.

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Specializes in med/surg/tele/neuro/rehab/corrections.

What a wonderful feel good story. :) As I was reading this I did have a question in my mind. Did you change the names of the people involved? in order to protect their privacy since they are not the ones posting? Just wondering.

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Specializes in Ante-Intra-Postpartum, Post Gyne.
What a wonderful feel good story. :) As I was reading this I did have a question in my mind. Did you change the names of the people involved? in order to protect their privacy since they are not the ones posting? Just wondering.

I didn't give their last names, or the location of where this happend. Plus if you noticed I put "Dr.xxxx"

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

very cool story.

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