The nervous early weeks

With Littles -- October 2006
The early weeks weren't all that nervous. I was aware of how common miscarriage was, but just hoped for the best, and had no issues.

With baby #2 -- February 2009
My first appointment with the hospital-based midwives I had selected was scheduled for 8 weeks. But late one Friday night, when I was about five weeks along, a few hours after my husband and Littles left on a weekend trip, I started cramping and bleeding. I immediately called the midwives' office and was told that I could not speak with a midwife or with any of the OBs in the practice, because I was not "officially" a patient yet.

It was probably the worst experience I've ever had with the medical profession. I understood the liability concerns driving it, and I didn't blame the midwives themselves. But still, I was losing my baby, I was terrified, and I was completely alone.

With Noob -- May/June 2009
I did end up seeing one of the midwives the Monday after the miscarriage started, so after that, I was officially a patient.

I started having concerns about my progesterone levels -- along with the early miscarriage, I was charting my cycles and saw symptoms of low progesterone in my charts. So I talked to my midwife about it and she agreed to do some testing.

I was really happy that she took my concerns seriously. Many doctors won't agree to testing until a woman has had three miscarriages. I think that's ridiculous. After suffering through the heartbreak of one miscarriage, my goal was to not have two more.

As it happens, the cycle when we started testing was the cycle that I got pregnant with Noob. After receiving a positive pregnancy test at home, I requested beta HCG counts and another round of progesterone testing. My midwife complied, and prescribed progesterone supplements for me when my progesterone levels did indeed come back low. My HCG counts looked great, which was a huge reassurance.

Then I requested an early ultrasound (technically to date the pregnancy, but my midwife and I both knew it was more for reassurance) and an early first appointment. Again, my midwife happily complied.

That support helped make those early weeks a little less nervous.

With Baby Q -- October/November 2011
As soon as I found out I was pregnant, I started working on getting my progesterone levels tested again. Unfortunately, my homebirth midwife is unable to write lab orders for that testing or prescribe supplements to address low progesterone. So I had to go elsewhere.

At first, I was worried that I'd have to go back to my old midwives, or find a random OB to do the testing. I wasn't really looking forward to that, because I didn't want to get into the history of my previous births (specifically Noob's place of birth) or my plans for this one with someone who might not be supportive of homebirth.

Luckily, my primary care doctor was happy to order up the tests, and to prescribe supplements when my progesterone turned out to be low again. She is truly amazing -- she's family practice, so she sees our entire family, including the kids, and she has the most wonderful personality. She always makes me feel like I'm in good hands, and this was no exception. It is still very early and I'm still very nervous about everything, but as with Noob's pregnancy, having great support helps tremendously.