#preclampsia

Doctors were able to hault the contractions, and the medication given was also able to lower my BP to safer levels. The protein issue is still there, but they feel confidant enough that I will be able to carry little man for at least two more weeks — which I am so grateful for.

Not out of the woods yet, probably won’t go home till next week, and will have to be monitored at home, but we’re ok. Little man looks good and his heartbeat is super strong.

Terapia vasodilatadora: la innovadora solución médica que previene abortos recurrentes

La pérdida espontánea del embarazo antes del quinto mes, es la complicación más frecuente de la gestación. En promedio, uno de cada siete embarazos terminan en una perdida, la gran mayoría de las cuales ocurren durante los dos primeros meses de vida intrauterina. Lo que suele ser devastador para la madre y su familia.

Hay un grupo de mujeres en que esta situación se repite en un segundo…

A Focus on Health Risks for New Mothers for Preeclampsia Awareness Month

May is Preeclampsia Awareness Month and NCMA’s Women’s OB/GYN Medical Group joins with the Preeclampsia Foundation to help raise awareness. This year the foundation’s efforts are on postpartum preeclampsia as 97 percent of maternal deaths related to preeclampsia and other hypertensive disorders of pregnancy occur within just six weeks of delivery, a time when most new mothers might think the…

The past two weeks have been crazy, so this will be long. If it’s hard to read, please feel free to skip. I remember the sting of seeing someone else’s birth story when I didn’t know if I’d ever get mine.

Okay, so you guys have no idea how surreal this is finally writing this. After 2 years, 5 rounds of Clomid, 9 months of pain, and 1 trimester of bleeding, I can finally type this up.

I woke up Thursday morning (7/16/17) ready for a quick baby shower we were fitting in that morning. Whenever I tried to put my wedding ring on, I noticed that it wouldn’t fit. Due to having so many issues in October, I decided to check my blood pressure. It was high, at 145/98, but it would usually go back down. So I went ahead and went to the shower, preparing myself for a high reading at my OB appointment afterwards.

Whenever I showed up, my nurse took my blood pressure and informed me that it was high and she would need to take it again after my appointment. I figured it was around the same as that morning and we were just being safe.

My doctor then comes in and starts his routine appointment. Whenever he went to find the heartbeat, he was having trouble. He knew she was okay, though, because everyone he pressed down on her, she would move away. It still worried him, though, so he told me to stay in the room while they set up for an ultrasound.

Upon getting the results, we found that she had too little amniotic fluid, but she was perfectly healthy and safe. With the blood pressure acting up, we made the call that it would be better to get her out now and not risk anything happening to her the next few days.

So I went home, grabbed my husband, and we made our way up to labor and delivery. There is a lot of little things that happened in between, so I’ll just try to keep this part short. Essentially my blood pressure continued to rise and eventually got up to 188/111. I had a huge rush of hormones that left me in excruciating pain in my breasts, so my nurse went ahead and gave me a narcotic to make it go away. The pain was affecting my BP.

After that, the nurse was happy to see that my BP responded incredibly well to the pain medicine, so I was told that I could receive the Epidural whenever I wanted regardless of how far progressed I was.

We started cervical ripening at 1:15 pm on November 16th, which sent me into labor. It made it impossible to give me a second dose. After little to no advancement, we started Pitocin around 8 that evening. That jumped start stuff and we were on our way.

I held off on the epidural until 1 am. The procedure took me 10 minutes, very little pain, and it worked incredibly well on my BP. It also allowed my body to completely open up. By 8:30 the next morning, I was complete.

Whenever I started practice pushing, we found that baby easily moved, but her heart rate would not stabilize afterwards. So I spent and hour in various positions getting her recovered and ready.

Finally, we were ready to push. She was still positioned weird, but doc felt it was a good time to start.

After that, I pushed for 18 minutes until she was finally here. Due to her position and my hips, we were extremely worried about a broke clavicle, but it all turned out okay in the end.

Things I have taken away from this experience:

- I am so glad I chose to have an epidural

- There is no way to guess which nurses will actually be your best advocate. My rudest nurse turned out the be the best nurse ever that got stuff done.

El parto inducido es recomendable en determinadas circunstancias, para garantizar la seguridad de tu bebé, la tuya o la de ambos

Cuando se acerque el momento lo sabrás, tu propio cuerpo te enviará las señales adecuadas. (Foto: Getty Images)

La gran mayoría de las mujeres, sobre todo las primerizas, temen el momento del parto y a media que avanza el embarazo y se acerca el momento de dar a luz empiezan a angustiarse pensando en la cesárea y en los partos instrumentalizados.

Según los expertos, la tasa de inducción es cada vez mayor en España ya sea por motivos maternos o por motivo fetal. Siempre que sea por razones médicas está más que justificado, otra cosa es que entren en juego otros factores externos. Un parto nunca debe provocarse por preferencias tuyas o de tu doctor. 

La inducción se plantea, en caso de embarazo cronológicamente prolongado, en la semana 41 justo una semana después de haber cumplido la fecha probable de parto, y en caso de rotura prematura de membrana con el embarazo a término. 

Las contracciones que ocasionan las hormonas sintéticas son más intensas y dolorosas que las que se dan en un parto espontáneo. (Foto: Getty Images) 

También se induce el parto en caso de enfermedades maternas como diabetes o cuando el feto tiene algún problema. Es decir, que es bastante probable que tu médico sugiera la inducción si:

Has roto la bolsa de aguas pero no tienes contracciones.

Tu bebé sigue sin salir dos semanas después de la fecha probable de parto (un embarazo se considera postérmino cuando han pasado más de 42 semanas de gestación).

Tienes una infección en el útero ("corioamnionitis")

Cumples ciertos factores de riesgo como diabetes del embarazo o hipertensión.

No tienes suficiente cantidad de líquido amniótico.

Tienes un problema en la placenta.

Tu bebé no está creciendo como debería.

En cualquiera de estos supuestos para provocar el parto los especialistas utilizan métodos mecánicos o métodos farmacológicos que son seguros. 

La opción más frecuente hoy día consiste en aplicar un gel de prostaglandinas en el cuello de la matriz a traves de la vagina o/y con un goteo de oxitocina para provocar las contracciones.

Las revisiones te irán dando pistas sobre cómo va todo, ¡no te saltes ninguna!  (Foto: Getty Images)

"Los métodos farmacológicos más frecuentes son oxitocina y prostaglandinas de las que se dispone hasta de un dispositivo de liberación vaginal que permite su retirada en caso necesario", explica el Dr. José Luis Bartha, jefe del servicio de Obstetricia y Ginecología del Hospital Universitario La Paz (Madrid).

Por otro lado, que el parto sea prematuro, los trastornos relacionados con la disfunción de la placenta, incluyendo la preeclampsia y el retraso del crecimiento, y la hemorragia posparto ocupan un lugar "estelar" entre las preocupaciones del obstetra.

"Incluso en países tan desarrollados como el nuestro son las principales causas de mortalidad materna", cuenta el Dr. Alberto Galindo, jefe del servicio de Obstetricia y Ginecología del Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre (Madrid).

Por eso, aunque debes dejar deje que la naturaleza siga su curso, si has superado con creces el tiempo establecido o han surgido contratiempos,  haz lo que tu médico te indique.

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