Thursday, April 4, 2013

Always Tell What You Can


I had an easy pregnancy.  I felt tired, very slightly nauseous, gained weight, felt movement, went to the bathroom a lot, got huge, it was pretty great.  

I had a couple of the signs of preeclampsia, including high blood pressure, headaches, swelling, and some significant sudden weight gain.  I did not have protein in my urine, so the midwife would tell me to take it easy and put my feet up more.  Each time my blood pressure was elevated, she would ask me, “Do you have any pain under your ribs on your right side?”  Each time I answered no.  I did have an uncomfortable feeling under my ribs, but I thought that it was the baby’s butt pushing up.  It was uncomfortable, but not what I would call painful.  At different times, I thought it was weird that I was having this feeling and he was sideways in my belly.  For some reason, it wasn’t concerning enough to me.

I had this same feeling when I was pushing during labor, again I thought it was his butt or feet or something.  My midwife knew different though.  Later when we were talking about my baby’s birth, she told me that when she saw me push on that spot, that she knew we had to get the baby out, and fast.  

Apparently “pain” is subjective, but this uncomfortable feeling was a significant symptom that wasn’t dealt with because I didn’t know what the butt on the ribs felt like! I always brought a list of questions/concerns to my appointments, but I never brought this one up.  It was on there a few times, sometimes the area felt like a soft spot and sometimes it felt like there was a rock in there!

Moral of this story?  Tell your midwife/doctor about anything you think is weird or uncomfortable.  It might be something serious or it might be nothing at all, but your midwife/doctor cannot do anything about it if they don’t know what’s going on.

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