Where I've Been Part II

(Warning: Baby Loss/Stillbirth)

June 6, 2020

Today I'm going to write a post about where I've been for the last year. In April of 2019 we conceived our son, Jack, and I had an interesting experience in pregnancy which I think I will break-down in multiple posts to share my experiences in greater detail. A few topics I want to cover are PTSD, Maternal Instinct, Anencephaly, Stillbirth at 22 weeks gestation, baby loss and all of the ripple-effects that it has had on me as a mother. I'm also hoping to update more often, especially as I feel more up to discussing these topics since Jack passed away, and also because I am currently 22 weeks pregnant with our rainbow baby- during a global pandemic of course.

I hope to really focus on the Canadian birth experience, stories from myself and other mothers, particularly diverse voices during the very important Black Lives Matter movement. I'm hoping to shine a light on typical and atypical Canadian prenatal and postpartum care and will hopefully be able to provide a resource for Canadian women and parents, as so much is written from a U.S/U.K perspective and I feel as though there could be more of a focus on our Canadian care and experience.

For anyone returning, thank you for being patient with me.

And for the new readers, thank you for joining and becoming a part of my experience with motherhood. I hope I am able to share the stories of many others in the future to provide a resource I feel is missing for Canadian women.

Megan

Comments

Getting Bad News at your 20-Week Ultrasound

Monday, June 8, 2020 In August of 2019 I had my 20-Week ultrasound scheduled for my second baby. We weren't planning on finding out the sex of the baby, we just went in for the typical anatomy scan. As protocol was last year in my Ontario hospital, my partner wasn't allowed into the room until the end of the appointment. Typically the anatomy scan lasts between 45 minutes and an hour, so it's a bit of a wait for your partner, but of course worth it to see a tiny human kicking and rolling around. I went into the ultrasound room and hopped onto the bed, excited to see my baby for the first time in weeks. I had begun to feel him move just about a week prior- I always feel my babies move later in pregnancy, around 20 weeks with my daughter, 20 weeks with my son and about 19 weeks with my current pregnancy. This isn't particularly worrying for me, as I typically have a lot of fluid due to being diabetic, and also in my current pregnancy I have an anterior placenta which may...

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Today's post is one that I have very much intended to write about for a long time, but felt as though I needed to describe my entire experience from start to finish to give readers a clear background on our unique experience (for those who haven't seen previous posts: anencephaly, preterm delivery etc). As a quick catch-up, I had found out at my 20-week anatomy scan that our baby was most likely going to be stillborn due to him having anencephaly, a condition where the neural tube hadn't fully closed, and a significant portion of his brain had developed outside of the skull. I intend to do a more in-depth post about anencephaly in the future, drawing from my own experience and knowledge from doctors that I have been unable to source online. We were told that our baby would most probably be stillborn, but there was a small chance that he may live for a few minutes, in which case they had summarized he wouldn't feel any pain but they would make him as comfortable as possi...

Birth Trauma and PTSD Experience

Hey everyone, Today's post is a personal one, notably on my experience with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder following the birth of my eldest child. To quickly catch you up, I was induced at 37 weeks after a 4-night stay in the Antenatal Unit where my blood sugars and baby's heart rate was closely monitored. My OB was on vacation and my care was transferred to another Doctor, who I didn't really get along with. She had cancelled my scheduled induction that my actual OB had planned, and she discharged me from the unit. While I was relieved to go home, I was really disappointed that all of the planning that had gone into my induction was then cancelled, so after some time resting at home (about a day) I tried to fight for my initial induction date to be rescheduled. She told me that she wanted me to get to 38 weeks (coincidentally when my OB was back from her trip), and her excuses were the following: one time she delivered a baby before 38 weeks who needed a feeding tube which...

Prego Mego

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