Maia's Birth

For some time, I have been wanting to write down the entire story of Maia's birth and finally feel like I have the time and energy for it. So, here it goes...

I have always bruised easily and discovered I had a low platelet count several years ago. I didn't really think about it during pregnancy, but it definitely changed all of our plans.

A low count in September sent us to a hematologist, who prescribed steroids to bring the levels up. I wasn’t terribly comfortable taking them, but after talking with our doula who is also a midwife, I realized a count in 30,000 was pretty low and steroids would probably bring them up the quickest. Normal levels are 150,000 to 400,000. My research on this condition, ITP or idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, showed that no one really knows why it occurs, but basically, the antibodies fro my spleen attack my platelets and sometimes it worsens during pregnancy. There are alternate forms of treatment through Chinese herbs, etc., but none of these work very quickly.

The steroids (which also gave me gestational diabetes) worked for a couple weeks, but then they started dropping again and by Halloween they were at 16,000. I went in for an IV treatment the next day at my hematologist office. Again, the levels went up for a week, but dropped by two weeks later. We tried a different IV treatment (which included a 14 hour stay in outpatient at Providence, luckily there were a lot of good movies on). My midwife visited me there and let us know that things had definitely changed and the OBs were talking c-section because of the risk of another treatment.

Our appointment on Wednesday with the OB went as we expected except she wanted us to go in for an amnio the next day and, if the baby was mature, a c-section the following day. We decided to wait and see where my platelet levels were the next morning at the hematologist. Kim and I went for dinner after and it finally hit me how worried she was about me, I had been focusing on the baby only. There are studies of women giving birth with platelets below 20,000, but it seemed risky to wait till I was full term and hope they didn’t go to zero. I wasn’t ready for an induction, which would probably lead to surgery anyways. At this point, I was finally realizing that I should worry about myself, not just the baby. I was so worried about her being born early, I wasn’t thinking about myself.

My levels were the same as they were earlier that week, 97,000. However, they still weren’t very high and with levels below 100,000, most anesthesiologists would opt for general rather than local anesthesia. That would mean I would be completely out and Kim couldn’t be there with me. I realize I was lucky to know beforehand, as many people have to do it in an emergency, but it was still hard to take. We decided that there would be a chance for local anesthesia if we did it right away and most likely my levels would go down again in a few days.

On our way to the hospital on Friday, I asked Kim if we could find out the sex of the baby since it was most likely I wouldn’t remember finding out and we wouldn’t be able to enjoy it together. Now, when I was first pregnant, I really felt like it was a girl, but people had almost convinced me it was a boy over the months. That last week, I had begun to believe again that it was a girl, and couldn’t believe it when the technician said it was a girl. Kim and I cried and we named her right away. I think knowing Maia Rae was coming (and we had a great picture of her face from the ultrasound) got me through that day. My platelet levels were checked again and they had gone down to 70 and they moved the surgery to later that night instead of Saturday.

The rest of the day was spent with Lucy ( a wonderful nurse who was with us when we first got there) in a pre-op room and visiting friends and relatives. I was pretty out of it and was trying to use Hypno relaxation exercises, but was unable to concentrate. When my doula showed up, my source of strength and peace along with Kim, we still had to wait another hour before going in. Finally, they came to wheel me in and it all went so fast.

I was expecting I would be out before I got to the OR and was scared that I had to see all the bright lights and equipment. However, everyone was so friendly and welcomes me to the birthday room that I started to relax a bit. It was even one of the nurse’s birthday and he stayed right by my head. All of a sudden, the anesthesiologist said that my levels were 90 and they could do a spinal. They sat me up and started prepping for the spinal instead of general. I was so excited and asked for Kim and my glasses. They sent someone to get her and it seemed like it took forever to get there, but she finally came in blue scrubs and mask, very cute. I felt nothing during the surgery, which surprised me and they held up a mirror so I could see Maia being born. I asked for them to put her on my chest right away, but they wouldn’t. She got the scrubdown, etc, but finally was in Kim’s arms and next to my head, but it was hard to see her. Finally, in post-op, I was able to hold her. The nurse wanted to keep her under the heater, but my doula helped me ask for her to be placed on my chest skin to skin so I could nurse her. She latched like a pro and I feel so lucky to have had that experience. After a couple hours, we were moved to our home for the next five days. The stay in the hospital was very hard, partly because of the high steroids I was on, but the nurses and especially Kim made sure Maia and I made it through. Coming home was the best and we were able to spend the next two weeks in baby bliss as Kim was home from work.

Overall, I am not as disappointed as I thought I would be having a surgical birth because of the beautiful treasure we are now enjoying. It helped me get over my control freakishness as I know there will be many more surprises to come in the coming years.