Staying pregnant!!!
QUESTION
Dear Midwife,
Hi, I wanted to ask about my condition. I am 20 and married and I got pregnant the first month we were together but I miscarried and subsequent pregnancies did not last two months.
Now I went to see our Ob/Gyn and she encouraged me to do all tests needed to ascertain and pregnancy test again which I did and it was positive so she put me on weekly Primolut and bedrest. I am doing this as she has requested but just three days ago I started a mid menstrual bleeding.
The pregnancy is barely a month and I am afraid and tired of becoming pregnant and not staying pregnant for the next nine months.
I do not smoke, drink or stress myself. I am just hyper active and I have cooled very much but I don't know if I have lost this pregnancy. I need advice.
Cheers
ANSWER
I'm sorry, but the medication you mention is not in the U.S. formulary; I'm assuming it's a form of progesterone?
Bed rest has not been shown to be beneficial in preserving a healthy fetus, just FYI, but it may make everyone feel like "everything possible was done" if things go wrong.
There are blood tests you can take that will tell you if the pregnancy seems to be going ok, which may put your mind at ease.
What is not clear from your post is whether all the tests were done before you became pregnant to find out if there is a cause for the repeated miscarriages, because some of those causes can be treated.
Good luck, and I hope everything goes just fine this time!
-- Cynthia, CNM. PhD.
Cynthia Flynn
Cynthia Flynn, CNM. PhD, is the General Director of the Family Health and Birth Center which provides prenatal, birth, postnatal, gynecological and primary health care to underserved women and their families in Washington, D.C. Recently Cynthia served as Associate Professor of Nursing at Seattle University. There she not only taught, but remained in full scope clinical midwifery practice at Valley Medical Center where she cared for pregnant and birthing women, and practices well-woman gynecology, family planning, and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases.
Cynthia founded Columbia Women's Clinic and Birth Center, where she took care of pregnant women and infants up to two weeks of age and attended both birth center and hospital births. Before Cynthia earned her CNM, she worked as a registered nurse in labor and delivery and postpartum and is a certified Doula and Doula trainer.
