A letter from Dr. Josiah

An update and short anatomy lesson...

I had planned on sending a letter in the next few weeks, sharing our plans as we approach the estimated due date, August 3rd, of our baby. As long as baby and I were doing well, I planned to be there through the end of July, gradually decreasing my time in clinic, but still so happy to see you all until we meet our newest blessing and I take some time away to heal, snuggle, and adjust to our new normal.

Notice how many times I said “plan” up there? 

You'd think that 9 years of parenthood, identical twin breech babies, and most recently a miscarriage would be reminders enough that we can make all the plans in the world… but we really don't know how our story will unfold, until it does.

And here's where our story is right now…

The baby and I are safe and well. It has once again been a pretty uneventful pregnancy - I have been feeling great (I think my chiropractor deserves some credit here 😉), but I have had a few instances of (fortunately, self resolving) bleeding this third trimester. A recent ultrasound made it very clear that the reason that's happening is because of the position of my placenta. Usually the placenta attaches to the uterus toward the top… but in approximately 2.9 out of 1000 pregnancies in North America, the placenta attaches at the bottom of the uterus, covering the cervix; this is called placenta previa. 

Due to the bleeding that has already happened, and inevitability of that happening more as baby grows and my body prepares for labor, I'm currently on modified bedrest - which is so easy as a mom of four (🤪 please read with thick sarcasm and frustration). 

What this means for my time in clinic, is that as much as I wanted to keep it all the same until birth, it's already changing. 

Going forward from today, I'm only seeing babies under the age of 2. And since the placenta is blocking the exit all my other babies were born through, this baby will need to be born by c-section, sometime in early July most likely.

Because birth is unpredictable, and especially so in this scenario, these are our current plans, and we will communicate with you any other changes that are necessary as we approach this birthday.

As far as postpartum goes… this will be my first c-section recovery, so we're leaving the timeline open. But we did already communicate what that will look like when I get back in our last newsletter, which you can find here.