Thank you so much for those of you who waded through that novel of a birth story, and for your compassionate comments on our experience. I wish so much I had a different one to share. Finally getting it signed, sealed and posted helped more than I expected it to, as did your affirmations of our strength.
To answer the question about chorio... It occurs when bacteria from the vagina is introduced into the uterus, most commonly through artificial membrane rupture (check), prolonged membrane rupture (check), multiple internal exams (check), and internal monitoring (double check). It's one of the main things they try to prevent with the GBS test, which I passed, by the way. Once it settles in, you start feeling really sick and your uterus becomes tender to the touch from the outside, so you can imagine what it feels like during a contraction. Ultimately, you end up with dramatically increased risk of many of the things we won the lottery on: Need for pitocin (75%), C-se.ction (40%), and pneumonia in the newborn (10%). If it strikes earlier in pregnancy, which it does sometimes despite the absence of all of those labor-specific causes I mentioned, it requires immediate preterm delivery and all of the challenges associated with that.
Of course I ask myself whether I would have gotten it if we'd stayed home longer. I don't know. All I know is that we truly did the best we could at the time. Knowing that gives me a feeling of powerlessness that is hard to make peace with, but I'm working on it.
1 comment:
K - thanks for the explanation of choria -wow - there is no way anyone could predict that one!
So glad that you felt heard and held and honored ( it's all h's) by us your adoring fans and online community.
keep telling your story - all of it - and we will be reading:)
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