Tuesday, January 01, 2008

An Early Delivery?

Rosey and I finally got fed up with her doctors constantly sending her to the hospital despite getting positive test results over and over again. So, we decided to switch to a new doctor based out of the hospital in Payson. We figured that the new doctor may not be much better, but at least:
  • there would be only one doctor to deal with instead of getting a different doctor at every appointment.
  • the new doctor was a female OB-GYN and came highly recommended by everyone that had heard of her.
  • the clinic is Payson is much closer and therefore means less travel time even if Rosey did end up going to the hospital as frequently.
Rosey saw the doctor for the first time on New Year's Eve. The jury is still out on whether or not we are going to have a better experience with this doctor.

Although Rosey's blood pressure continues to be only slightly elevated, and neither she nor the baby is showing any other signs of distress or pre-eclampsia, the doctor was concerned. Enough so, that she said that she will monitor Rosey over the coming weeks and decide week by week whether or not she wants to induce labor and get the baby out early. She said that she could do this as soon as the baby reaches 34 weeks and has mature lungs. That would be next week :)

Even if everything goes well over the coming weeks, she said that she will probably want to get the baby out one way or the other when she reaches full-term at 37 weeks. As you can imagine, neither Rosey nor I are very happy about this. Neither of us want there to be any danger for little Sarabelle, but unless there is an imminent risk we would prefer that she get to cook for as long as possible. And so far, every test, other than the blood pressure reading itself has come back showing that there is no imminent risk.

It's very frustrating to feel like you are at odds with your doctor. I understand that doctor's are concerned about taking risk's that could lead to lawsuits if something goes wrong, but on the other hand, I feel like they put their own interests (of covering their own asses) ahead of the best interests of the baby.

In any case, if the doctor gets her way, we may be parents a little sooner than expected. So much for having a valentines baby :)

3 comments:

FoxyJ said...

That's so frustrating. I fought with my doctor for my entire pregnancy, because he wanted to take Timothy out a few weeks early "just in case". It was mostly "just in case" he ended up doing a c-section in the middle of the night, which he ended up doing anyways. Obstretics is a really difficult area of medicine with a lot of problems these days. Everyone thinks they should have control over outcomes, and they don't. There's no way to make that happen. If Rosey is still feeling good during the next few weeks, I'd keep fighting to let baby cook a bit longer. Induction can lead to more problems, but I can sort of understand why doctors do it.

Tina said...

Sorry you guys are frustrated and a bit worried. That is no fun. But for what it is worth- my first two were induced and I think as labors go they were pretty easy. They both were induced around 10am and were born around 4pm. One was on my due date and the other 2 weeks early. I would worry about inducing at 34 weeks unless there was a serious risk. But at 37 weeks I wouldn't worry. Most of my friends would pay big $ to get a doctor to induce at 37 weeks. By then alot of women are tired of being huge and uncomfortable.

I hope everything works out for you two or shall I say three. And by the way- I LOVE the name Sarabelle!!

Chris said...

Shannon's water broke at 35 weeks, however she didn't go into labor. Of course once your water breaks unless it is way to early they will force you to have the baby. So Shan was induced at 35 weeks with Jasmine and she came out 6 lbs 7 oz. Which was a great size according to her, at least in comparison to Kai :) Anyways it meant that Jasmine had to stay in the NICU for just under a week. However, in comparison to most of the kids there she was fine, she didn't need oxygen or anything of that sort, they just wanted to make sure she could maintain her own body heat adequately.

Yet on that note, I completely agree with the other comments, inducing is fine, but if everything seems fine to you don't accept doing it early do it when you feel comfortable with it! They like to bully you around but you are ultimately in charge. Unless you feel there is a risk, then wait! And know that if worse comes to worse, jasmine is fine and was born at 35 weeks :)