2nd Visit with Mary Charles

We heard the h/b for the 2nd time today! Maybe it shouldn't be, but it's a big milestone for us because I feel like we're officially pregnant now. There is so much pressure these days to not tell anyone until you're through your first trimester. We're not quite through the first trimester, but we're at 10 1/2 weeks and Mary Charles, our midwife, said that we're through the risky part of the baby's development. Yippee!

It took about 2 min for her to find the little baby's h/b, because it's so small, but when she did find it she commented that it was fast. I asked her if it was a boy or a girl and she said girl with confidence :-) It's just an old wives' tale that a fast h/b means it's a girl. I forgot to ask her exactly what the speed was. At the first appt it was 152.

Other than listening for the h/b, she went over a few other things with us. It turns out that I'm RH Negative. This means that my blood type (A-) is negative and I'm lacking a protein on my red blood cells. This used to be a big deal, but now they have medicine (RhoGAM), that they can give the mother during the 7 month of pregnancy and immediately after birth. If I don't get the shot (I will) then there is a small chance it could affect this pregnancy, but a bigger chance that it would affect our next pregnancy. What happens is if the baby I'm carrying now is RH+, and if some of it's blood gets into my system at delivery, my body would see it as foreign and create an antibody to kill it. So if my next baby was also RH+, my body would have this antibody that would try to harm it. If, by some small chance, Jeff's blood is also RH-, I wouldn't have to get the medicine. If we're both RH- then the baby would also be. Stats show, however, that 85% of white folks are RH+. Anyway, seems like RhoGAM does the trick and it's not a big deal.

We also talked about an optional 2nd trimester screen that can be done. They take a few drops of blood and send it to a lab to check for defects such as down syndrome. I don't think we'll get the test because there are a lot of false positives and there is nothing that can be done if there is a problem (except for termination of the fetus). I think the test is mostly for women that are above 35 and have a history of defects. Any mommies have any input here? What did you think about it?

And lastly, I asked Mary Charles what she thought about doulas. She's been delivering babies for 30 years and said that, in her opinion, doulas make things easier with natural births and she likes working with them. They provide no medical knowledge, but instead provide a comforter for the mother and father. Her role would be to make sure Jeff and I are not anxious and are as relaxed as possible. We're still on the fence about a doula, but it's nice to have MC's opinion.

Very long update, but we only have monthly appointments now and I want to make sure I record everything while it's fresh on my mind. Thanks for checking in on us!

Shanna and Jeff