Saturday 23 July 2011

Radio.

I sent an email into our local radio station "Manx Radio". Stu Peters does a debate programme at lunchtime, this was for the subject of "Should we encourage people to have more homebirths than hospital births?" This was my reply. He read the whole thing out (quite special) and also repeated it in the later show when they go over what happened in the show to anyone that missed it in the day. Our story has inspired a lot of people.


Hello Stu,

I had a high risk pregnancy which made it next to impossible for me to have a home birth, I would have felt alot easier in a hospital with staff on hand anyway.
I gave birth to my twin boys' on 18th April of this year and from 15 weeks of my pregnancy we knew we were going to lose Christopher. It was a very stressful pregnancy but Dr Fayle was superb and made sure I had scans every week. Because of the condition my son had which is a neural tube defect namely Anencephaly, which meant his brain would be missing and it would also be exposed due to lack of skull; and would therefore not be compatible with life. With my boys' being identical, sharing placenta and amniotic sac there would be a very strong chance that if Christopher passed away in my womb (which was a possibility along with him being still born), his brother Harry would be immediately severely brain damaged or also die.
A caesarean was planned for 34 weeks to make sure the boys' were delivered as fast and safely as possible.
I actually went in to labour at 32 weeks and 2 days, in Ramsey on the way back to Douglas and I was rushed to the hospital where they inserted a drip to stop contractions and also 2 sets of steroids to mature their lungs. The drip had to be stopped on the Monday and ready or not the boys' were coming.
They delivered me by caesarean section, Harry weighing just 3lb 12.5oz and Christopher (with a growth restriction) at 1lb 12oz. I had precious time with Christopher and Harry was off to SCBU which he made a fast recovery and was home in no time.
If it wasn't for the team and their fast acting I would have probably not have gotten the time with my son that was so precious. It doesn't always go the way we plan and pregnancy isn't as straightforward as thought. Home birth if you like, but the care given by the hospital where signs of danger to mother or baby can be spotted early is well worth it.

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