“Abort, abort,” rang through my head the entire taxi ride home from the doctor’s office. I was twenty weeks pregnant. How could I abort my perfectly healthy babies?
That was the fourth time during my triplet pregnancy that a doctor suggested I abort one or more babies. Every time it was said as if the doctor was talking about the weather. Didn’t he understand what these babies meant to me? What babies mean to a lot of people? I saw their heartbeats. They were alive.
Four tiny hearts pulsed with life, when I went to the doctor at six weeks pregnant. It was more beautiful than the prettiest sunset ever captured on film. After miscarriages and failed artificial insemination, I was blessed with my first IVF being a success. The doctor ruined the moment with his jarring words “You need to selectively reduce down to one or two babies.” I wanted to yell back, “You mean kill. Kill my babies.” However, I was raised better than that, so I said nothing and knew that I would not “reduce” my babies.
At eleven weeks pregnant, my husband and I saw a genetic counselor and watched an hour long video about the risks of higher-order multiple pregnancy. The message on the video was to reduce higher-order pregnancies down to one or two babies. The counselor parroted this message when we met with her afterwards. Unfortunately, when we met with the doctor and had an ultrasound done, there were only three beating hearts in my belly. Still, the doctor uttered the most hurtful words I had heard until I met Dr. Nasty
It was at my twenty-week and four day appointment when Dr. Nasty scarred me. I found out three days prior that I was showing signs of preterm labor. My cervix was short. I was given progesterone and expected to make it to thirty-two weeks when my babies most likely would be born healthy. However, that didn’t happen and my cervix had shortened.
“You can abort, reduce down to one or try some medicine. I think you should abort and try again,” Dr. Nasty said to me that fateful day. I still cry when I think about it. I get angry when I think of those that might have thought that this top rated specialist might have actually known what he was talking about.
Whether you believe in abortion or not is your business. However, I believe that everything should be done to save a child in utero before anyone gives up on it. My babies were saved by Dr. Nathan Fox and Dr. Andrei Rebarber, among others, at Maternal-Fetal Medicine Associates in New York City. In addition to the progesterone, I was put on indomethacin (an arthritis medication) that shut down the babies’ kidneys, so the babies would drink the amniotic fluid and then it would travel through the umbilical cord and out through me. This reduced the internal pressure. I was also given a terbutaline pump, which was suppose to help control the contractions.
Anna, Liam and Owen were born at thirty-four weeks and one day. Not one of them needed oxygen. They light up my life and melt my heart. They turned three on May 30th. But what if?
CLICK LIKE IF YOU’RE PRO-LIFE!
Prior to having kids, I worked in finance for twenty years. I never once thought of publishing anything other than investment research. However, Dr. Nasty changed me, in a good way. I want to offer hope to those going through situations similar to mine, so I wrote a book, Five Strands of Hope. The title reflects that my cervix, at one point, was only five millimeters or as thick as five strands of hair and all I had was hope.
Don’t listen to the doubters, naysayers, the pessimists. If you believe in something, then do everything you can to make your dreams a reality. I knew that in the end, for better or worse, I was going to do everything I could for my babies and my dream of having a family.
LifeNews Note: Laura’s book, Five Strands of Hope, is available on Amazon.com or through her website, www.5strandsofhope.blogspot.com.
