Counting our Blessings

I almost didn't want to share this story because it's so sad, and I certainly didn't want to scare any preggo women out there....but it definitely made us count our blessings.

I have a coworker, who has also been a great friend and mentor to me. She struggled to get pregnant for many years, and even did two rounds of IVF with St@nford. No luck. she switched to the doctor we ended up using, and because of his exhaustive testing, he found she had elevated NK cells, treated her, and she got pregnant!

She recommended that doctor to me, and I fully believe that's the reason I got, and am still pregnant. My friend has coached me through all the phases of pregnancy, as she got excited for her own baby girl to be born.

She was scheduled to deliver via c-section at 7am on Thursday. Two hours before her appt, something felt terribly wrong. They were rushed to the hospital. The most unbelievable tragedy happened, that makes me sick to my stomach and cry each time I recount it.

The umbilical cord had detached from the placenta, for no known reason. Because of that, the baby's heart stopped beating minutes later, and their little girl died in utero. TWO EFFING HOURS before she would have been born, and would have been just fine. Two hours separated this girl from life and death, and separated my friend from motherhood and ultimate tragedy.

I cried that whole day at work, when I found out. It's just beyond tragic, unfair, and my heart has been so very heavy the last few days. As you can imagine, they are devastated, and don't know if/how they will recover. If you feel inclined, please send any healing thoughts their way. I am just sick to my stomach over their loss.

I researched this, and women at highest risk are those who've had IVF pregnancies and/or uerine surgeries. Hello, I've had both! There is a 10x higher chance of vasa previa happening. The good news is, there is a color doppler scan they do somewhere around 26 weeks, which can detect if you are at risk. With this scan for detection, infant survival is about 100%! They generally do c-section at 35 weeks. For any of you who've gotten pregnant with IVF, I'd encourage us all to ask our OB's to give us these scans. They are not routine, so we'll need to be pushy and demand them. It could save our babies' lives.