Her: Are you free?
Me: What's up?
Her (coyly): April? What does it feel like when the waters break?
Oh maaaaaan!! You're only bloody 34ish weeks!!!!!
So off to hospital we went. Baby was happy as Larry. Strangely though, the waters were NOT present on examination. Well I was quite shocked at this due to the description I was given and Mum was just as confused as me!
Off we trotted.
It seemed very odd when the following week there was a huge discrepancy in the amount of fluid around the baby during the growth scans, and as a Midwife, even I was baffled. Where had all the fluid gone if the waters were reportedly intact? She was checked internally again - Negative - no presence of amniotic fluid. It was at this point that Mum's anxieties reaced fever pitch. Covid-19 has affected the world in many ways, I know many maternity patients have felt alone, worried, anxious and a barrel of other feelings through this pandemic. From being unable to see their named midwives through to attending all other appointments alone, being unable to have their support networks around them so much, uncertainties in all that was Covid related and much more.
The couple of weeks following the discovery of reduced fluid round the baby, a higher end of normal resistance via the umbilical cord and he was measuring a lower birth centile too (insert eye roll emoji!) proved to be quite testing at times. We had a little discussion about our professional/friend boundaries due to differing levels of advice and opinions received and all remained well between us!
Not long after that - mum just could not keep it together any more with various HCP opinions/plans and with all things being considered, it was decided that it was time for the kid to be evacuated!
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