My Facebook post today September 19, 2024

 

This is deeply personal, so be kind to me.

 

When we had been married about 5 years, we were very happy to learn that I was pregnant with our first baby. At around 20 weeks, I got up one morning and found that I was bleeding. I went to the hospital and learned that the baby had stopped growing a few weeks earlier and had died inside of me. This was 1977 and we were living abroad. There were no ultrasounds or anything like that.

I had a D&C to remove the dead baby and tissue (no I don't know if it was a boy or a girl). That D&C kept me from developing an infection and possibly losing the ability to have more children. Or it could have even killed me. Losing that baby was devastating, but I am happy to be alive.

I am grateful that I was able to get the medical care I needed. I have been able to have five very wanted pregnancies and five wonderful babies- all grown up now.

In many of the states in the US now, I would not have been able to have the procedure- D&C- it would be considered an abortion. And I might not have lived.

This is one of the reasons I am pro choice. A women's medical care should be between herself and her medical provider.

Oh, and by the way, I am a grandmother now too!!!

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Here are some of the comments:

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•  I also had a D&C after I spontaneously miscarried, and continued to bleed for a long time. I totally support you.
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•  At my 12 week prenatal check up during my first pregnancy it was discovered that I had a molar pregnancy, so had to have a d&c. My second pregnancy was a healthy baby girl. During my third pregnancy I once again found out during my 12 week exam that the baby had died. I did not spontaneously miscarry, so had another d&c. I'm so concerned that young women don't have the healthcare i did 35 years ago.
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•  There are so many reasons why this care needs to remain easily accessible.
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•  In the late1980's I experienced a miscarriage at 11 weeks pregnant and was already in maternity clothes. This followed the SIDS death of my infant son Paul in 1986. I wanted my daughter Ann to have a sibling. Kept having miscarriages and D&C's until I successfuly carried my premie Carrie in 1989. I was 41 yo and was hospitalized 6 wks with bleeding before she was born 6 was early. The D&C's allowed me to keep trying. They preserved my fertility. I don't know if a doctor would do it in Idaho today.
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•  I agree, Nancy. After 2 healthy babies, I had an ectopic pregnancy and my tube ruptured. I was bleeding internally so emergency surgery was performed. If that had been denied, I would not be here today. I too love being a grandma
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• Me too, sort of. My first pregnancy ended at 9 weeks after bleeding for 5. Doc said he couldn't say for sure that the pregnancy would be okay, and I wasn't willing to end it, just in case. 2nd pregnancy went fine. 3rd pregnancy--I started bleeding again at 5 weeks. This time doc did a blood test and compared it to the first--no pregnancy hormones at all, so there was no way that baby was going to make it. By this time, I had a 2 1/2yo, a relatively new job (with no leave built up), and no hope, so I had a D&C--and they found nothing. It was awful making the decision to have that procedure, even knowing there was no hope. It makes me so angry when folks--especially clueless men--talk about abortion decisions being so casual for women to make, and that they are made just on a whim, like deciding to try a new brand of toothpaste. No woman in the position of even considering abortion as a solution considers it so lightly, and I don't think you can go through such without it profoundly changing you. I don't know that the consequences of me not having a D&C back then would have been catastrophic for me, given the pregnancy was over, but it may have helped prepare my uterus for the next pregnancy. MY body, MY decision!!!!!!!
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•  In 1982, I suffered a miscarriage with twins in the 28th week, the first baby born was a perfect little girl weighing 2 lb who's lungs were not developed enough. The 2nd girl weighed just 11oz and had probably died at 18 weeks from a twisted cord; her decomposing body was poisoning both myself and the first baby. Would today's legislators considering prosecuting the doctors, hospital staff and myself because the first baby died also? How many legislators even realize that 20% of pregnancies end prematurely and medical care is required.
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• I am overcome by the emotion coming through these personal stories. It is why we must fight to maintain rights over our own bodies.
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  I had a trip to the ER on a Saturday night, a vacuum extraction there, plus a d and c days later in his office. Later, I became pregnant with our last baby.

   

   I have two stories of tubal pregnancies. One was a friend who suddenly had terrible abdominal pain. Her husband finally convinced her they needed to go to the ER, and as she was walking downstairs, she felt a pop and instant pain relief. Thankfully her husband insisted they go. Her tube had ruptured and she would have bled out if they had not done surgery. The second was a friend who had IVF. Fortunately, with IVF they do serial ultrasounds after an embryo transfer and they knew the embryo had not implanted in the right place. Being only days after implantation, they could give her methotrexate to terminate and she would not lose a tube. I’m guessing in a lot of states right now, the first case wouldn’t have surgery until the hemorrhage was critical and I’m unsure what would happen with the second. Scary stuff.

 

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added later

* I had to have a D&C the next day after a stillbirth at home. In some states they would have preferred to have my preschooler lose his mother and leave my husband a widower, because apparently i have no value as a human being. The ignorant, mostly male elected officials have no right to make that decision. It's a grotesque overreach of power.

*Medical care is nothing politicians should play around with.

 *This was posted by a man:    Thanks for sharing this tender story. These stupid male politicians who are making these drastic decisions for women's health need to get kicked out of office....

 

 

 

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