Bumps in the Road

You know the old saying, "It's like riding a bike"?

Lately I've been feeling like this pregnancy is kind of like riding a bike that has been sitting in a garage, cobwebs gathering in the spokes, chain starting to rust. The brakes are a little loose. I feel the bumps a little more. And that rusty chain feels like it might just come off. Not that I am not thrilled and thankful that I am pregnant -- it doesn't happen for everyone, and there is only a relatively short period in a woman's life that she can carry a child.

It's just that my pregnancy with Isaiah was the definition of easy. I had very little morning sickness and passed all the "tests" that women are given along the way, so I had no medical worries. I stopped teaching at the beginning of the third trimester because it coincided with the end of the school year, so I had plenty of time to rest in the final weeks before I gave birth.

This pregnancy, on the other hand, has had a few more challenges, starting at 33 weeks when I began having signs that I might go into labor earlier than I should. That required bed rest and had me up at night worrying about having a premature baby. Then I pulled a muscle in my abdomen, which resulted in a burning sensation every time I sneezed, coughed, or laughed. It also meant I really needed to stop picking up isaiah, . And the latest sign that this ride would not be as smooth as the last one -- the news that I had a bacteria called Group B Strep, which current medical practice says is a ticket to the hospital for IV antibiotics during labor.

Since I plan to give birth at home, this was not welcome news, but, of course, the health of my baby is my foremost concern. When my midwives found out about the positive test, they started me on a homeopathic regimen to rid my body of the bacteria. They also informed me of the risks, but in a way that was not as black and white as it was presented in the hospital. I started doing my own research as well.

What I found out is that my baby and I have a lot working in our favor. First, the homeopathic regimen recommended by my midwives is often successful. In addition, I am past 37 weeks, my labor with Isaiah went relatively fast (meaning if my water breaks first, I will probably give birth in less than 18 hours), and at the time of the test the bacteria had not advanced to my urinary tract. Another surprising thing I have working in my favor is that I don't plan to be in the hospital during labor. Vaginal exams and artificial rupture of membranes can both give the bacteria a way to get closer to the baby and increase the risk of infection. I've also learned from reading and from talking to a scientist who refreshed me on some basic biology, that if you use antibiotics you kill off everything, including beneficial bacteria, so you may be making way for other possibly more harmful bacteria to take their place. The immune systems of both the mother and the baby play a part in whether or not an infection will take place and future infections could occur in the baby if it is not given a chance to get the mother's antibodies because all of her bacteria was killed off during labor.

Deciding whether or not to receive antibiotics is far from a roll of the dice, as I had originally thought it was. While I still haven't made up my mind (my results from a second round of testing will come back Thursday, and reveal another factor: whether or not the bacteria is gone, and if still present, how colonized it is) I am so glad that I learned from my first pregnancy to investigate all aspects of pregnancy, labor, and birth so that I don't have to make this decision out of fear.
In other words, the bumps in the road have certainly gotten my attention, but they aren't going to make me get off the bike.