Story from a Reader and her difficulties while she was still pregnant. How can a pregnant woman get such a big scare and for everything to turn out fine? Work of God! See her story below.
“I’m here to share a little of my story with you… I’m 28 years old and have a beautiful 8-year-old son. I got pregnant when switching from one birth control to another at 19, my relationship was unstable, as you’d expect at that age. I remember it like it was yesterday when I received the result over the phone; I recall having to call several times before I could understand what the positive meant because I was so nervous, not to mention the day I had to break the news to my parents…Phew, just thinking about it gives me butterflies in my stomach again, haha! Well, I’m one of those people who believe that everything happens for a reason, nothing happens at the wrong time… At three months pregnant, I had a small bleeding and checked in at a very famous maternity hospital here in Rio de Janeiro. There, the doctor who performed my ultrasound said he couldn’t see the baby… I took my result to my doctor, who explained that, based on that result, it was a blighted ovum. It was close to Christmas… for caution, she decided to do another ultrasound before taking me to the curettage room, called the doctor who did ultrasounds, and he was just getting into his car to leave, but at my doctor’s request, he came back to perform my exam… as soon as he used the device, we could hear the heartbeat, she looked at me and said, ‘My dear, this one asked to be born…’
Funny thing is, at the moment I got the news that it was a blighted ovum, I was so sad that for a moment I had forgotten all my nervousness about carrying a baby while still feeling like one…, and shortly afterward, when I learned he was there, alive, fighting to come into this world, I felt so comforted and happy, but still I couldn’t accept my pregnancy, I didn’t caress my belly, didn’t take photos of its growth, didn’t talk to my son like pregnant women do, and avoided people I knew on the street. In short, it was a depression I just couldn’t shake; I even would shout at home that I wanted God to take me during childbirth, and my mother became desperate over my state.
At 7 months, I went through a robbery at the salon I was in where there was a shootout; to protect myself and already with motherly instinct, I threw myself on the floor belly-down so nothing would hit it. It was terrible, my belly turned as hard as a rock, I was freezing, and he, poor thing, hid on one side because of the impact. At 8 months, stopped at a traffic light near a community in Rio, there was another robbery, also with gunfire. A very humble family got me and took me to their house to protect me… anyway, each month that passed, he, my son, showed he was destined to be mine and I his.
My labor was on a Wednesday and the previous Friday, I started having a thick white discharge, and only told my mom about it on Sunday. As soon as she found out, she called my doctor, who asked for me to go to her office on Monday, and on my way there I had a bad fall. When I arrived, she realized I was 1 cm dilated, so I went home for bed rest. By Tuesday, I started urinating more often and there was a brown discharge. I called my OB, and she told me to check into the hospital very early on Wednesday. I got to the maternity ward at 8 cm dilated. I wanted a natural birth, but my doctor didn’t think it wise because I was contracting and already 8 cm dilated without feeling any pain. She came up to me and said, ‘Vivi, I won’t risk a natural birth because I believe he may be tangled in the cord.’
And sure enough, he had two loops of cord around him. I had only gained 4 kg, had a baby weighing 3,980 g and 51 cm. At that moment when I held my son in my arms, all that depression evaporated; our destinies were truly linked in that maternity ward. Today, he is my greatest and best friend, my life! I got married again, and my husband has no children; he loves my son as his own, but we have been trying to conceive since August, when I stopped taking birth control. Funny how life surprises us, doesn’t it?! Eight years ago, I was desperate about having a beautiful baby inside me, and today here I am trying for another, and each month my period arrives it’s a new frustration. I think the guy up above put me to the test, you know, so I could see what a gift it is to create a life, to value it more… but anyway, I’m still trying and just like before, I’m sure it will happen at the right time. “
See also: Reader’s Day Pryscila’s Story – Ruptured Membranes and Loss
Photo: Neudimar Reis
