Thankfully, my baby girl lived despite being born so early, (she is now almost 3) but it was a long painful journey after she came home from the NICU, and with all of the various specialists and developmental therapies she's had to go through and is still going through, I wasn't sure more children would be in my future. Despite wanting more children, it took a lot of emotional healing to finally get to a point where I could even begin thinking about the possibility of getting pregnant again.
An incompetent cervix which opened in week 21 of my pregnancy, was to blame for the eary birth of my daughter. When I arrived at the hospital at almost 22 weeks pregnant, the doctors did not have much hope that I would last 24 hours being dilated 5cm and almost completely effaced making it impossible to do a cerclage procedure that would have sewn my cervix shut. But I did last 24 hours, in fact I made it 16 days in the hospital bed set in trendelenburg position. I never once got up from my bed and was able to get her to a point where, although still severely underdeveloped, she would be viable to live outside of my womb. She was born at 24 weeks and 2 days and was given a 20% chance to survive. She was very tiny at 1 pound 5 1/2 ounces, and only 12 and 3/4 inches long.
My doctor was initially perplexed on why I had an incompetent cervix because I delivered my first pregnancy without any complications. I would find out his theory almost 3 years later when we began thinking about having more children. When my husband and I decided that we wanted to try for more one more child, I spent a great deal of time talking with other women who have also had an incomptent cervix, some who unfortunately lost their babies, and others who were able to carry to full term or very close. My conversations with these women prompted me to have a frank conversation with my OB concerning whether or not I would ever be able to have more children because of my incompetent cervix. Still perplexed on why I had an incompetent cervix, his theory is that the delivery of my first child caused a weakening in my cervix which led to an incompetent cervix with my second child.
When I felt emotionally ready to try for one more child, now armed with my doctors permission to try again and armed with more information from other women who have also been through it my husband and I decided to go ahead and try again. When pregnancy didn't happen and we had decided to go back on birth control, I found out I was pregnant. This came as a surprise to many people. It's been hard for those close to us to understand why I would want to try for another child after the trauma of delivering a premature baby, but in my research I found that having an incompetent cervix doesn't mean you have been given a life sentence and with a cerclage the likelihood that I will carry to term is very high as long as I heed my doctors advice.
I've written this blog to hopefully help other women who may have the same fears after having an incompetent cervix. I will chronical my pregnancy weekly including various procedures, etc that I will have to go through to ensure I can deliver full term. I have nothing to do with the medical field, I am just a mom who wanted a large family and thought it was out of my realm of reality.
A side note to warn my readers as this blog will be a realistic and honest view of what I have gone through to make my family a possibility. Some of the content may be graphic in nature as I describe my journey in detail and some of the procedures necessary to sustain a full term pregnancy after incompetent cervix.
