When our first child was 18 months old, we decided we were ready for an addition to the family. For a few months, we tried to concieve, and I attempted to ensure the gender of our hypothetical child would be male. I read the science and I read the old wives tales, and I followed the days and the tricks to making absolute sure baby number 2 would also be a boy. After all, raising a boy was what I knew how to do. And I was a girl, and I'm not all that great. So I was quite certain I didn't want, and wasn't ready, for a daughter. However, I started to panic when I did not become pregnant. After all, I'd already had a child, and I was only 20. Wasn't it supposed to just happen? So I threw all of the tricks and timing to the wind, and asked God please just to allow me to have another child! Sure enough, that month I became pregnant. And as soon as I knew I was pregnant (3 weeks, 3 days), I knew it was a girl. When the gender ultrasound came at 15 weeks, I told the tech she wouldn't have to look too hard, because I was sure it was a girl. And she told me I was right.
We named her then, as we did with our son when we knew he was a boy. We loved "Jean" for its meaning, God's gracious gift, and because the name is tied to my mother-in-law, Grandma, and grandmother-in-law. We added the "ah" for our daughter's own twist. Though we had chosen her name for its meaning, we did not know then how true it would be.
It was a difficult pregnancy. I was overly swollen, overly tired, in too much pain, and experiencing too many episodes of contractions and too many episodes of bleeding. Everybody was on their toes, because my first pregnancy had been so complicated and resulted in a delivery induced because of preeclampsia, and a 4 lb baby with a heart defect (Praise God, he is healed and well!). The high risk doctors watched her closely, and montiored her with 7 ultrasounds between 7 and 36 weeks. I was in the hospital 4 different times for bleeding incidences and twice for lack of movement. As awful as I felt, and despite that gnawing feeling that something was not right, my doctors assured me she was absolutely heathly. She was past 6 lbs by 36 weeks and her vitals always strong. I tried to be assured in their assessment, and decided perhaps I was crazy after all (I certainly felt it!).
On Friday, January 28, 2011, I had my 39 week check up at 9 am. During my appointment, I told my doctor I was having a lot of contractions. She had them monitored for a short time, and told me she'd likely see me in the hospital later that day. I went home. I tried to rest but contractions wouldn't leave me alone, and wouldn't really get closer. Finally, at 3 pm, I told my husband the contractions were too frequent and too intense to be anything but labor, so we headed to the hospital.
After 2 hours of watching my contractions remain steadily the same, for the most part, and I at 3 cm and 80%, my doctor called in to start a low dose of pitocin. As soon as the drip started, I knew the rest of labor was going to be quick. I played cards with my hubby and visited with my friends and family. I asked the nurses if my doctor planned to break my water, like she did with my first, but they said it wasn't necessary. They said it would break, or she would break it when she got here. Within 2 hours, I could no longer engage in the fun. I finally asked for a painkiller, at 7 cm, only to become extremely sick by it as soon as it came through to my veins. At 8 cm, I asked for an epidural and was blessed to narrowly make it through that window and be comfortable for transition (to all of you natural birth mamas - I admire you greatly, and am sure I would make decisions differently if we ever had another child... however, in the moment I was very thankful for the relief!). Not long after the epidural was in place, I informed the nurses my doctor should be called soon. I told them I pushed for only 11 minutes with my first child, and had heard it went faster with the second. It was 10 pm. They called her. Then I felt nauseas. I sat up, and then I had a seizure. When I woke up, at first I couldn't see or hear. Then I could see my husband, and nurses scurrying, but I couldn't hear them. Finally I could her them calling to me, but couldn't seem to respond. At last, fully awake, I told my husband I was okay. I told them I had a seizure, and he said that was what it looked like to him. I knew the feeling, because I'd had one a few years before. However, the nurses continued scurrying about, informing me that I was now 10 cm.
I asked about my OBGYN, and they said she'd be here soon. Now I could sense the shift in attitude from the nurses and my husband, but I was unable to understand what it all meant in the middle of transition. Three nurses crowded me and the head nurse told me I was going to start pushing. It was clear I wasn't waiting for my doctor. My husband focused on me, and I felt calm. If he knew something was wrong (he did), he wasn't showing it. With the first push, my water finally broke. And with that, the nurses began to panic even more. I heard one of them say something about the dropping heart rate. The head nurse focused on me and told me how important the next push would be.
On the second push, at 11:01 pm, my daughter was born. Her head came out and I could see that the umbilical cord was wrapped all around her neck, and looked nothing like an umbilical cord. The head nurse, Sharon, delivered her, and slid the cord off of her, and just then it burst and blood was everywhere. The nurses carried her to the table next to me, but wouldn't let me hold her. I heard her first apgar announced and it was a 3. I was terrified. I said a silent prayer that God would help her, because I was not strong enough to lose her. Then she started to cry really loud, and I could see how pink she had become. I started to cry, knowing she was okay. They announced her second apgar, an 8. But still, I was not allowed to hold her. Finally, my doctor entered the room.
She looked very nervous, but congratulated us. She sat down to deliver the afterbirth. She started saying things that weren't making any sense to me... "Still attached", "Too far in", "No attachment to the cord"... and then told me that unfortunately she was going to have to manually deliver the placenta. I didn't even know what that meant, much less why it was necessary! She explained she would have to literally pull it out, and that she would be pushing, really pushing, on my stomach throughout the process. It took 20 minutes, and it was at least 3 times more painful than the delivery of my daughter.
Finally! The nurses brought Jeana Brooke to my arms, and she looked at me and cuddled up as if she'd been expecting me all along. I was very nervous about nursing her for the first time, because my son had such difficulty. But I held her to me, and she latched on and nursed for a half hour as if she'd done it a million times before. I was so overwhelmed by the blessing of our beautiful daughter. My husband had tears in his eyes, and watching him hold her for the first time melted my heart.
After the first hour and a half together, we let our parents and siblings in to meet our angel. Immediately, my mom started gushing over our "miracle baby" and proclaiming her a "true angel"! As much as I believe my daughter is a miracle and an angel, she seemed to really know something I didn't know! So I asked her what she meant. The nurses had told her the whole story while she was in the hall.
I had Vasa Previa(VP), Velementous Cord Insertion(VCI), and Single Artery Umbilical(SAU) Cord. (The next day, my mom brought me several pages of printouts of information about these conditions). In VP, the umbilical cord blocks the birth canal. The baby's head pressing on it can cause it to rupture, causing the baby to bleed out or lose all oxygen withhin 3 minutes. VCI is a condition where the umbilical cord is attached to something OTHER than the placenta, in my case, the amnitioc sac. This dawned on me: my daughter received no nutrition from the placenta throughout the entire pregnancy. Yet she was born a healthy 6 lb, 8 oz, and 18 3/4 inches. Her umbilical cord, blocking the canal was also a SAU, with the artery exposed. This means it was very weak, lacking blood flow, and easy to rupture. When VP is diagnosed early in pregnancy, the prognosis is good. Mothers are typically put on strict bed rest, and admitted to the hospital at 28 weeks, where they are montiored carefully. C-section is scheduled for 35 weeks, so the baby can avoid the risk of labor. Any of the following things can cause the death of a full term baby when VP is present: Membranes rupture (water break), cervix dilates, or contractions rupture the umbilical cord. The estimated time of bleed-out or loss of oxygen in such cases in 3 minutes. There is no time to get from home to the hospital.
Together, these 3 conditions, when undiagnosed, result in a 95% mortality rate of full term infants. The 5% who survive undiagnosed VP, typically survive because they are born by C-section, usually emergency C-section for other reasons, such as a drop in heart rate.
So how many babies survive vaginal birth with undiagnosed VP, VCI, and SAU? 0%.
That's right. There is no statistic for how many babies survive these circumstances, because it virtually doesn't happen. I have sought to find other families of babies who have survived, and to date I know for sure of 4 other survivors. 4. FOUR.
As soon as I realized the weight of what it all meant, I broke down. I heard a nurse sum it up like this "This baby was meant to be here for some reason", and another like this, "There is no way she should be alive right now. But there she is." Another told my mom, "It was the perfect descent". That was it exactly - it was perfect. Had anything about my labor been even the tiniest bit different, she would not have survived. But she was not delivered by me, or by my doctor (who wasn't there!), or even by my amazing nurse Sharon. She was delivered by the hand of God! I once read a book recommended to me by my pastor called "In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day" by Mark Batterson. In it, he tells the Old Testament story of a man who chases a lion and slays him in a pit. What in the world? It is the truth that God LOVES setting up IMPOSSIBLE odds, to prove beyond a doubt that he is ABLE where we are not. Nothing I could have done would have saved my daughter's life. She was sent to me by her Father!
"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights, who does not change..." - James 1:17
"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'" - 2 Corinthians 12:9
You can find more information about VP, as well as support families of VP miracles and of VP angels through the International Vasa Previa Foundation @ vasaprevia.org.
