Intrauterine Growth Restriction

At my 28 week growth scan, oliver was tiny, he measured in the 3rd percentile, and was basically the size of a 25 weeker.
I then found out ha had severe IUGR, (intrauterine growth restriction) it is when the baby is not growing at a normal rate.
During this scan they found I had developed issues with the umbilical blood flow and my baby was not getting the normal amount of blood to his little body, causing the growth restriction.

Once we knew about the umbilical flow he was monitored closely to make sure he did not stop growing and that the blood flow through his umbilical cord and to his body and brain was sufficient enough to keep him in my belly.

In cases like mine the blood flow through the cord was called "intermittent" this meant the flow would stop and start, stop and start instead of constantly flowing forward.
The risk was that the flow would also reverse and start taking blood from Oliver, which would mean immediate delivery.

Along with all of this Olivers little heart was working super hard and he started to become distressed.
There was a decrease in his movement as he was trying to conserve his energy.

I was told he could need to be delivered early and due to his heart defect and being so small i was told to basically prepare myself for him to potentially not pull through if he was born prematurely.
I was immediately sent to melbourne being only 30 weeks pregnant and terrified i was going to arrive and have to deliver my baby early.
I honestly believed my little baby wasnt going to make it.

Olivers doctors in melbourne wanted me to make it to 34 weeks before i delivered him.
This was because at this point he had a chance of survival.

After lots of monitoring, and 4 scares where i was rushed to birth suite due to oliver being distressed and having big dips in his heart rate, he continued to grow and we finally made it to 34 weeks.

It was literally the scariest 4 weeks of my life.
Knowing your baby is struggling inside of you was tough, but i knew he needed to stay put as long as possible. And he did.

On mother's day i celebrated being 34 weeks pregnant! So proud i made it this far and my baby would survive delivery!
Little did i know the very next day would be his birthday!

Comments

  1. Amanda Dickinson14 June 2017 at 22:00

    Definitely relate as I found out IUGR with Kaleb at 28 weeks and he was also measuring at 25 weeks. Unfortunately his did turn into reverse blood flow and he was born at 28 weeks 6 days weighing 2lb 2oz. (You wouldn't know it looking at him now!)

    ReplyDelete

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