To think that "I didnt know I was pregnant"

[SaggyOldClothCatPuss]

Is just one big promotion for 'pre natal care'!
You get the back story, the delivery and then a whole lot of ranting about how 'she didnt have any pre natal care'. She didnt take any vitamins, she didnt have any tests done, no ultrasounds blah blah blah. As if the mother was SOOO lucky that the baby managed to survive!
Now dont get me wrong, I know anti natal care is there for a reason, but crikey! as far as I know, not taking vitamins or having a scan has never killed anyone!

Of course not taking vitamins can kill babies. And so can missing scans which could pick up a life threatening issue before it was too late.

There is a reason people are advised to do these things, its not just for the fun of it.

Haven't seen it but sounds like YANBU.

As you say, antenatal care is important and it's wise to avail of it etc.

YABU. Scans pick up all sorts. So do blood tests etc. Ectopic pregnancies, pre-eclampsia, the liver one (forgot the name), breech baby.

They are lucky, in a sense.

btw you dont have to be particularly lucky to get successfully through pregnancy with no antenatal care, the antenatal care is to pick the minority that cant get through without assistance. So in that sense yanbu. But more babies die without it than with it.

In this Country - I think most babies would survive without the mother having taken vitamins or having scans. Its certainly not miraculous when they do !
Its just reassuring to have scans and they DO pick up problems.

"as far as I know, not taking vitamins or having a scan has never killed anyone"

That statement is so wring I don't know where to start! You only have to look back 100 years to see how many mothers and babies lost their lives through pregnancy. Anemia? Placenta previa etc etc etc!

Woman who book late or who don't book at all are over represented in the maternal mortality statistics.

Some of this is multifactorial in that woman who don't speak much English and/ or come from very deprived / restrictive communities are likely to book late but not having antenatal care can definitely affect the outcome of your pregnancy.

YABU.

Women have been having children without ante-natal care for almost 2 MILLION YEARS. I don't really think theres an issue. Stay fit & eat well. It's advantageous, but far from 'required'.

P.S YANBU, you are one of the few normal people still around.

Ok, maybe not killing anybody is the wrong way to put it. Its just the way the programme puts it! Its almost "DEAR GOD, she didnt have ante natal care! Its the end of the world as we know it"

"as far as I know, not taking vitamins or having a scan has never killed anyone!"

Just because you don't have personal knowledge of a phenomenon, does not mean it never happens. Unless you are in fact a major deity, and omniscient.

You've fallen into the trap of arguing from ignorance, which is a type of logical fallacy. You're not the first, and you won't be the last, but don't do it again!

I know someone who decided to go it alone with her last pregnancy - no doctors, no midwives, no ante natal care, no scans etc. Just her husband to help with the labour.

This lady went into labour early and at least had the sense to get to hospital. She had her baby, when all of a sudden the midwives said "hang on there's another one in here". The second baby needed extra help and had to have help after it was born. The midwives couldn't believe that the mother had had no scans and didn't know she was carrying twins.

If she had gone into labour early the pregnancy could have had a different outcome. Thank goodness for modern medical methods, but some people are so stupid and pig headed.

Sorry Saggy but I think the point you are trying to make is ridiculous.

OK. IABU.
Maybe I just need to watch less crappy american baby tv!

"Women have been having children without ante-natal care for almost 2 MILLION YEARS."
Um, yes, but there was a much higher mortality rate for both mother and baby in those 2 million years, part of that is obviously due to antenatal care.

Neutrinoghost, women have also suffered colossal mortality rates during childbirth for most of the past 2 million years as well. I don't think all the improvements in death rates are due to antenatal care. Some of it is skilled birth attendants and modern medicine during and after delivery too. But I certainly wouldn't fancy doing things the way our not particularly distant ancestors had to.

neutrinoghost:

Throughout 2 million years of history, enough women and infants have survived pregnancy, childbirth, and the early months for our species to do well, yes.

That is not the same thing as every single woman and infant doing okay.

Incidentally, scans and blood tests picked up some issues during pregnancy for me. Issues that might well have resulted in stillbirth without treatment, otherwise.

Sorry if I'm being a bit dense, but are you advised to take vitamin supplements when pregnant? Genuine question - I am newly pregnant and I thought folic acid with a balanced diet was sufficient.

Also, not really sure what this is about - is it a TV programme?

To clarify, my question was prompted by another poster's comment: "Of course not taking vitamins can kill babies"

I'm guessing you've had relatively normal pregnancies then?

In my first pregnancy, I would most certainly have died without good and timely ante-natal care. I developed fulminating (severe, life-threatening, multiple organ failure) pre-eclampsia just before 26 weeks. This was picked up at my routine 25 week + appointment (I had no symptoms). The next day I was due to travel to a remote part of the country. I became very sick so fast that I would have died if I'd not been taken to hospital immediately. My baby did not survive.

PS I was a "low risk" pregnancy and had no risk factors suggesting that I was at high risk for any pregnancy complication. Pregnancy is unpredictable [my 2nd pregnancy was naturally deemed very high risk - but was in fact totally normal].

1 in 9 women in Afghanistan still die during pregnancy and childbirth. This is what happens is a population with virtually no ante-natal care / care during labour.

Both I and my baby would most likely have died in childbirth if we hadn't had scans.

Breech baby, uterine septum, placenta accreta - nothing unusual, all simple enough to work round with a c-section and some minor surgery during the section - all would have more likely than not killed one of me and babe if we'd turned up at hospital in labour.

I suspect everyone knows at least one mother or child who would not be here without antenatal care.

HTH.

Yabu, if I was offered a scan after 30 weeks, they would have noticed my placenta had failed to mature enough to support my baby. Incidentally my dd was stillborn at 41 weeks. So yes ultrasound scans can save babies lives.

Folic acid is a vitamin wineandcheese.

Without my final scan both my Ds and I would have been in serious trouble the midwife said he was head down, scan said breech and as I had already had a emergency c-section with Dd no way was he going to come out naturally. So I think you are being a bit u.

wineandcheese

Well, folic acid is classified as a B vitamin, IIRC. Don't want to scare you, but it is, erm, not healthy for a pregnant woman to be deficient in that.

See your doctor. A well-balanced diet and folic acid supplementation is what was recommended to me, but I am (a) not a doctor, and (b) do not know your medical history, even if I was.