The VBAC Blog

Healthy Baby Born After Prenatal Screening Falsely Showed he “Died”

(The baby survived a D&C!)

http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/mar/07030704.html

AND

Doctors Fight to Save Aborted Baby Wrongly Misdiagnosed as Deformed in Prenatal Test

http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/mar/07030804.html

(The baby eventually died of a brain injury suffered during the abortion.)

~~~~~

After an ultrasound very early in pregnancy, I was told my baby was already too big for his gestational age and that I would need another c-section. They told me that before he was old enough to have even had fat! Had I believed them, I would not have had a successful VBAC. I’d have just been a good little patient and did what they recommended.

Prenatal testing is NOT 100% accurate – far from it.

I’m very proud to announce that my new book, DON’T CUT ME AGAIN! Real Stories About Vaginal Birth After Cesarean, is finished and up for sale!

Here’s the blurb:

Once a cesarean, always a cesarean? Not quite!

Have you had a cesarean section (c-section) and are you pregnant again? Is your doctor or hospital trying to force you to undergo another c-section, just because you’ve had one previously? Are they spewing statistics about the potential consequences of Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC), but not telling you how dangerous another c-section can be?

Across the country and the world, women are being forced to undergo major abdominal surgery against their wishes, often for the convenience and profits of the doctors and hospitals. Yes, a c-section is often billed at much higher rates than a vaginal delivery!

Would it surprise you to know that many doctors do, in fact, support VBACs in healthy women, but are instead allowing the hospital and their own insurance company to dictate the medical care you’re about to receive? That’s right! Your doctor’s liability insurance company, not your physician, may be directing your care right now!

In these pages, you’ll read true stories from women who refused to submit to the medical community’s threats and fear-tactics. These courageous moms instinctively knew what was best for their babies and themselves and, after having a prior c-section, successfully birthed their babies
vaginally.

The practice of forcing a c-section on a woman and her baby violates a woman’s basic rights and can very well result in harm to the baby and/or mother.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction by Angela Hoy
1. Don’t Cut Me Again! by Angela Hoy
2. A Heart Defect…or a Water Birth Complication? by Angela Hoy
3. We Are Fully and Most Awesomely Female by Chaleen Duggan
4. Birth and Re-birth by Brigid Cumming
5. A Tale of Two Sons by Patrice Fagnant-MacArthur
6. Three Births, Two VBACs by Lea Date
7. Three VBACs! by Carrie Steinweg
8. A Belly Dancer’s VBAC by Heidi Wessman Kneale
9. Trading Fear for Love by Julia Duncan
10. A Natural Delivery is Best for Baby by Diane Craver
11. Delivery by Pony Express by Jodi W.
12. Two Successful VBACs by Brenda Ruggiero
13. Induced At Home— A Midwife Uses Cytotec by Karen Putz
14. VBA2C: VBAC After Two Cesareans! by Deana Atherton
15. I Fired My OB at 35 Weeks by L.S.
16. A Birth I Can Dream About Now by Robyn Morton
17. Position and the Right Support Mean Everything by Wendy Bat-Sarah
18. I Will Definitely Do It Again! by Franny Meritt
19. Our Bodies Will Do Anything to Protect Our Babies by Lauren Cooper
20. Stuck at 4 cm… by Kathleen F.
21. Hoping for a Better VBAC Next Time… by Emilie
22. The Happiest Mom with a Sore Bottom in Town by J.P.
23. Don’t Fix What Ain’t Broken! by Lauren Cooper
24. I Didn’t Know I Had That Kind of Strength by Kathleen K.
25. To My Sweet Baby Logan Bob by Emilie Jarman
Index

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Angela Hoy was stunned and angered when she was told she would not be permitted to birth her fifth child vaginally, even though she’d had three successful vaginal births and only one previous c-section. Her research into this ludicrous practice revealed a nationwide trend of hospitals forcing women to have major, and often unnecessary, surgery against their wishes. Her pleas for help led her to other women who had already successfully done what Angela wanted to do, have a VBAC! Their courageous, sometimes painful, and often humorous birth stories appear herein.

You can order a copy here:

http://www.booklocker.com/books/2845.html

Or, you can purchase a copy from Amazon.com, bn.com, or from your favorite online or brick and mortar bookstore.

Our newborn son, Mason, was admitted to the hospital on Monday morning. He has experienced rapid breathing since his birth. Things got worse Friday night but we were told by the pediatrician on call that he did not need to go to the emergency room. We monitored his breathing all weekend (normal
respiratory rate in newborns is 30-60 but his was in the 70-80 range and occasionally in the 90′s and 100′s).

We took him to our doctor’s office first thing Monday morning and they were very concerned and sent him to a doctor in Ellsworth (who works with the pediatrician who cared for him when he was born). This particular doctor is also the doctor that reads all the EKG’s in Hancock County. This doctor was also very concerned (you know it’s bad when they usher you right into a room in front of everyone else) and sent us to the hospital next door for blood work, an EKG and a chest x-ray.

We were then back in the doctor’s office in only an hour and he told us the EKG results were “very abnormal.” He then explained that Mason probably has a congenital heart defect and, if it was one common defect in particular, he could expire”
at any moment. It had something to do with a valve that would instantly close and his heart would stop. Something in the blood work indicated this might be happening and the EKG further
concerned him. So, we were now in emergency mode. Richard and I were basically in shock, veering from tears to panic and back again, and wondering what poor Mason was going to have to go through and wondering if we were going to the lose our
beautiful baby boy. Oh my God, I can’t even tell you what we went through in the next few hours but I’m sure some of you have probably had horrible, life-altering moments like this, too.

The doctor explained we’d have to transport him by ambulance
to a bigger hospital (the one in Bangor) for an Echo Cardiogram (Echo) and, if he needed surgery, they’d have to immediately transport him to Portland (about 3 hours away).

He left to call the cardiologist while we sat in the room, now almost afraid to touch Mason, thinking if we startled him or if he cried, he might die.

The doctor came back and said the cardiologist said it could not be one of the defects he’s suspected because Mason’s blood oxygen levels were too high for that. So, we went from that what’s-wrong-with-our-baby panic to our-baby-might-die
hysteria, back to wondering what was wrong again. But, since the EKG was abnormal, the doctor was sure it was his heart.

He said, “Sometimes we get an abnormal EKG and the Echo comes back just fine.”

I said a prayer, “Please, God, let that happen to us!”

We signed a release waiving the ambulance transport as that would take 2-3 hours to arrive in Ellsworth and we drove Mason back to Bangor, which is only 45 minutes away. I cried most of the way and tried to talk to my mom on the phone. She started crying, too. She called my brother and he started a prayer chain with his church members. I can’t tell you how much comfort that brought us, knowing complete strangers were praying for our baby.

We had to drive right by the house and Richard pulled up to
the curb to drop Max off. Ali was waiting for him by the door. He then drove to the hospital and dropped me off to park the van. I rushed Mason upstairs. People were waiting for us in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. They ushered us into a room and hooked him up to monitors, starting taking blood, ordered an
IV so they could instantly care for him if his heart instantly stopped, and brought in the Echo machine. I was in tears and couldn’t talk.

Richard got upstairs and they started the Echo. It took about 90 minutes. I recognized the cardiologist as the one who took care of Frank during his fainting spells a few years ago. She is extremely thorough and I knew we were in good hands. I kept
trying to decipher what she was saying during the test but I really didn’t understand any of it. I did realize that she was teaching the technician some things during the test, and that made me feel better, that they were discussing the way things should look, not discussing things they were finding wrong.

Mason slept through the entire test. When they were done, the cardiologist said, “There’s nothing wrong with your son’s heart.”

I started crying again. I can’t describe the feelings we had then! Such immense relief and we knew it was a miracle! God heard us!!!

They then had to look for other sources for the cause of the rapid breathing. Remember, his respiratory rate (RR) was in the 70′s and 80′s all weekend. They came in for a heel prick
and had to get blood in a few tubes. They ended up squeezing his heel for half an hour and, let me tell you, he screamed and was purple the entire time!

Oddly enough, once that test was finished, his RR was in the 50′s and 60′s and, except for when he’s upset, has been in the normal range every since. More on that later.

The regular doctor (the pediatric intensive care unit – PICU – doc) came in with the x-rays and said he thought he saw a shadow in the left lung. He ordered a new x-ray for the next
day. He suspected either pneumonia or a possible defect in the lung. We were so thrilled that his heart was okay that we were fine with a lung problem.

I was awake most of the night and I think God probably got tired of hearing me say “thank you” that night. Mason slept great that night. His RR was perfect and he nursed, burped and
pooped often.

The next morning (Tuesday – 4th of July), he had another x-ray. The doctor came in later and said the shadow was still there. He was pretty sure it was pneumonia we were dealing with (I’d been praying all night, “Please let it be pneumonia!” And it was!!!).

The previous day, we’d been questioned extensively by medical personnel about any congenital defects in the family, my pregnancy, and Mason’s birth. There was some concern about my blood sugar levels as babies of diabetic moms can
have heart and lung problems and more. There were questions about my HepB status and the water birth. The doctor in Ellsworth told us many hospitals no longer allow water births because there have been cases of babies being infected by bacteria during the births. One baby in Maine died from bacteria during a water birth. You see, they sterilize the tubs, but the water is just plain tap water. They didn’t sterilize my water. I know cause I got into it immediately and it was NOT boiling!

We told the PICU doctor about this. He’d not heard of it but he researched the subject that night and read that there have been cases of babies catching Legionnaire’s Disease from hospital water systems. They collected urine from Mason to do that test but have to send it out for the results. They went ahead and started him on antibiotics just in case because we’ll
have to wait a few days for the results.

Other than that, Mason wasn’t running any fever, nor showing any signs of infection.

So, while we may never know what happened, we do know this. Mason was born in a large tub at the hospital. It was a beautiful, gentle birth (well, except for my “primal” hollering). He was so relaxed he slept during the birth and after. He came out, did not inhale bath water, and started breathing on his own
when air hit his face. He never really cried, meaning he never got that big, huge, screaming breath babies usually get after being born. His blood oxygen after birth was a bit low, around 88-90. They wanted to get it up to 94. He had a hard time doing that.

About two hours later, I noticed he was breathing too fast, but the nurse wasn’t concerned, saying they breathe about 60 breaths per minute. Later, somebody else noticed it, too. He was breathing 74 per minute. They ordered a chest x-ray and it was normal. They discharged him after 30 hours. We assumed all was well.

Mason continued to breathe too fast for the next 11 days. I was very concerned and worried the entire week. When Richard noticed he seemed to be panting on Friday night, we called the pediatrician (not ours) on call that night. Monday is when all of the above took place and Monday is when they pricked his heel
and he screamed for half an hour. And, as I stated above, his RR has been normal ever since.

So, either Mason never fully opened up his lungs (he never really did howl until the big heel prick and squeeze), or he contracted pneumonia from some germ and that’s contributed to his rapid breathing. We may never know.

The good news is Mason *might* get released tomorrow (Wednesday)!! Your prayers about his quick recovery would be greatly appreciated!

Hugs to all!
Angela, Richard, and the kiddos

UPDATE: Mason has been released! It is now Wednesday and we are home. Thank God!!!

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Our infant son was admitted to the hospital on Monday morning.

We are not yet sure what is wrong but the first suspicion of a congenital heart defect has been ruled out, so we are already feeling blessed. They’re now focusing on his lungs. It may be nothing serious but they have to rule out everything.

I am working when I can so please be patient. Richard is transporting my computer back and forth to send and receive my emails and file downloads/uploads.

Please don’t email me about this as my emailbox is already overflowing. Please, instead, say a prayer for Mason. He’s going through quite a bit right now for a 13-day-old little guy.

Hugs,

Angela and Richard