Intrauterine growth restriction

But I couldn't work out during my pregnancy.

Were you on modified bedrest? I was on bedrest, but my daughter was diagnosed with IUGR when I was 12 weeks.

I had that with Aspen.

You did? I was on bed rest my entire first pregnancy.

And then shortly after the, what's it called? Anatomy scans.

He was also diagnosed with IUGR, the intrauterine growth restriction.

So they had us coming in every week to monitor his placenta and his umbilical cord to make sure that he was getting enough nutrients because he was significantly smaller than his brother.

And he still is.

They told me they're like, if you don't, if he doesn't turn by 35 weeks, he's probably not going to.

So we just went ahead and scheduled a C-section.

Plus they thought it was, it would be easier on Luca since he was IUGR.

They didn't want to take any risks of having him go through the birth canal and have any trauma because he was so small he was four pounds but that's still pretty small

It turned out that she did have a two vessel cord.

She was IUGR, so she was very small.

She was 760.

So four pounds.

They're like, she's good.

She got an FGR score of nine.

And then she, you know, we went to our recovery room and we had burgers.

And, you know, later that night, NICU came in, like our nurse was like, I think NICU should come check her.

So I had one hysteroscopy with an old doctor and her second hysteroscopy with a guy that specialized in Asherman syndrome and my second transfer with after that surgery was the successful one so they really do think that that was a huge part of my problem in the end first it was making healthy embryos and then it was getting them to stick to six so the second hysteroscopy matched with a different kind of drug and a slow and steady process of building aligning seems to have been what has worked for me this time but With the successful pregnancy, it also posed a lot of problems because not only had I conceived on a very, very thin lining, but I did have a lot of scar tissue in my uterus.

And that inevitably ended up being a big problem with this pregnancy because I probably had IUGR, which is interuterine growth restriction.

So I finally announced to the world that we were pregnant at 23 weeks, which was awesome.

We had a beautiful pregnancy.

And then I'd start the process all over again every single week to see, is she still growing? Is everything looking okay? Checking the Doppler's of the cord flow and the blood and making sure that everything was looking as normal as possible.

Trying to figure out why it is that she is so small.

Because there's a number of reasons where you can have IUGR and that everything from Placental failure, which is what mine ended up being.

Obviously hard drug use, which definitely not me.

And it's like a a parallel to the amount of changes that are happening in the human brain during adolescence which is an immense amount of changes if you think about it the hormonal changes and the physical changes and all the things the things we think about in adolescence are different from childhood the things we think about in motherhood are different from womanhood so it's just giving yourself The grace, number one, and then the space to just say, like, if I have zero clarity around how I want to birth, I'm going to trust that during these nine months, It will arise and I'll get clarity as I listen to stories and talk about things and, you know, just continue connecting with my body, connecting with my baby, going over options in a non-pressured way.

That really allowed me to not only get clear on what I wanted for my birth, but also at 36 weeks where I was diagnosed IUGR and my birth plan literally completely flipped and I had to birth in the hospital and get induced.

And I was able to keep my center because I gave myself the opportunity to like get there when I got there.

So I just want to say like, I don't think we need to go into all of the specific uncertainties.

Avoid, of course, atenolol 'cause it's the medication that's most highest linked to, uh, growth restriction, uh, so we don't do atenolol.

Most of the data that has linked small babies, whether they're FGR or SGA, with Marfan syndrome, has to do with use of this medication.

It does not seem that Marfan's by itself leads to growth restriction.

It's mainly because the majority of patients are on labetalol, and that is a known medication for growth restriction based on higher dosages.

Are you gonna have somebody who's gonna listen to you, who's going to individualize your care, who is, um, not afraid? Because, you know, we've talked about it.

Some midwives will get an ultrasound from an MFM, and they make a recommendation, which in my opinion they shouldn't make recommendations to our clients, um, that this woman should be induced because her baby is considered IUGR.

And then the midwife will feel not comfortable going against-

Right

So when her and her husband became pregnant, she sought out a birth center and was delighted with her care.

Unfortunately, a preeclampsia diagnosis at 37 weeks would have her being transferred to the hospital immediately for an induction, and upon delivery, she'd also gain an IUGR diagnosis.

For her next pregnancy, she was determined to eliminate the possibility of preeclampsia through diet, exercise, and prayer.

And this time, instead of transferring from a birth center to the hospital, she transferred from a planned hospital birth to a home birth, and an unassisted one at that.

Yeah.

So they did all the scans, like they did the anatomy scan at the birth center

... you probably wondered if there was any kind of connection between, like, your preeclampsia and your placenta and the IUGR.

Like, if there was any connections there.