So, you may remember what a shocker it was to hear last Friday that Dr. Moritz doesn't deliver at the Birthing Center anymore. I really liked him, but I like even more to have the option of using the birthing center... who knows if I'll actually be able to in the end due to unforeseen complications or me not dealing well with the pain, but still, I want the option! There's a group of midwives who work in Moritz's office a couple days a week and if any of their patients go high risk or need higher level of care, they automatically get switched over to him, so it seems like a win-win. I called them on Monday and the receptionist said they're no longer accepting patients due in December! OMG! They aren't kidding when they say popular practices fill up quickly (I should keep this in mind and start shopping around for day cares already!!). But, actually, I had filled in a request for an interview (yes, they have to interview you before you're accepted, to make sure you "qualify" i.e. not high risk in any way) back when I had just found out, around 5 weeks. They had called twice, during working hours, and I had never been able to talk to them. I told the receptionist this and she said one of them would call this week. Finally got the call today, and had to run down and out of my building in order to get reception, but YAY they accepted me!!! I talked to Susannah Donahue-Negbaur on the phone and she seemed super nice. Unfortunately I didn't have time to ask all my questions, but I did ask my biggest one which was whether or not they offer more support on birthing day than the doctor (i.e. being with me longer throughout labor). She said yes, they'll talk to me by phone while I'm laboring at home, as long as possible, and then meet me at the hospital. Coralie Macqueen and Sandy Woods are the other 2 midwives, so probably I'll rotate through them at my visits and get whoever is on-call on the big day. I guess I'll have to hold my other questions for my first appointment with them, which will be in another 3 weeks.
I also went ahead and scheduled the Nuchal Translucency (NT) Scan for June 18 (12.5 weeks). This is newly recommended to all women, but it's optional. It's basically a sonogram with a certified tech who checks the baby's neck to see if it's high risk for Down Syndrome, other chromosomal abnormalities, and heart defects. Combined with a blood test, they have a 92% chance of correctly detecting Down Syndrome, thought there is a 5% false-positive rate, meaning all signs point toward Downs but actually your baby is perfectly healthy. The really stressful thing is that if the scan and blood test look bad, they recommend either immediately do a chorionic villus sampling (CVS), or wait til 16-22 weeks to do an amniocentesis. CVS has a 98% accuracy in detecting chromosomal abnormalities, and a 1% chance of miscarriage. The Amnio is very accurate in detecting any genetic problems because it takes fluid from the amniotic sac, which contains sloughed off skin cells from the baby, though, the risk of miscarriage is 1 in 300-500. So you can see it's a slippery slope once you decide to have the first test, which in itself seems so harmless and just an extra chance to see your baby on the monitor! But, if your risk levels come back high, there are some pretty scary decisions to be made. My worst nightmare would be to show high risk, go with one of the more invasive but conclusive tests, find out the baby is perfectly healthy, and then suffer a miscarriage probably as a result of aforementioned tests. Yuck yuck yuck. But Ryoji and I both feel pretty strongly about getting the NT scan, so let's just cross our fingers that everything comes back looking good from that!!
I also went ahead and scheduled the Nuchal Translucency (NT) Scan for June 18 (12.5 weeks). This is newly recommended to all women, but it's optional. It's basically a sonogram with a certified tech who checks the baby's neck to see if it's high risk for Down Syndrome, other chromosomal abnormalities, and heart defects. Combined with a blood test, they have a 92% chance of correctly detecting Down Syndrome, thought there is a 5% false-positive rate, meaning all signs point toward Downs but actually your baby is perfectly healthy. The really stressful thing is that if the scan and blood test look bad, they recommend either immediately do a chorionic villus sampling (CVS), or wait til 16-22 weeks to do an amniocentesis. CVS has a 98% accuracy in detecting chromosomal abnormalities, and a 1% chance of miscarriage. The Amnio is very accurate in detecting any genetic problems because it takes fluid from the amniotic sac, which contains sloughed off skin cells from the baby, though, the risk of miscarriage is 1 in 300-500. So you can see it's a slippery slope once you decide to have the first test, which in itself seems so harmless and just an extra chance to see your baby on the monitor! But, if your risk levels come back high, there are some pretty scary decisions to be made. My worst nightmare would be to show high risk, go with one of the more invasive but conclusive tests, find out the baby is perfectly healthy, and then suffer a miscarriage probably as a result of aforementioned tests. Yuck yuck yuck. But Ryoji and I both feel pretty strongly about getting the NT scan, so let's just cross our fingers that everything comes back looking good from that!!
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