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!

My midwife told me about this woman who didn't want any medical intervention during her pregnancy, no scans, tests or anything. She had a homebirth and she delivered a baby, then told the midwife she needed to push again, and then a foot appeared. The midwife had to singlehandedly deliver twins, one of which was breech. And there were just the 2 of them there.

Yabu

Is anyone else starting to wonder if the twins story is an urban legend?

Huh?

There was a women on a similar program who had no scans/ aninatal care " who had twins in the bath, both breech she said she was lucky shed read up on breach births because they advise you not to push if your on your own , her husband said he was scared to death seeing the first pair of feet, never mind the second

Well it was my community midwife who this happened to. So maybe it's more common than previously thought!

Well spaghettitwirler, the same story has been told by 3 different people on this thread, albeit with slight alterations.

Not taking vitamins doesn't kill babies. Not consuming an adequate diet can be detrimental to both mother and baby.

The majority of mothers and babies would be fine if they didn't have any scans. Some people benefit greatly from scans, which is why the vast majority of people opt for them.

I think there is a lot of scaremongering re vitamins, etc. Two of my pregnancies were unplanned and I was concerned because I hadn't taken folic acid, etc during the first few weeks of pregnancy. Rationally, I knew I had a healthy diet, and didn't really need any supplements, but there was that horrid nagging concern that I should have taken something manufactured.

But then we all know of the woman who smoked and drank during pregnancy and had a healthy baby, and the woman who struggles to carry a baby to term despite doing everything "right".

Ahh.

I told a midwife i didnt want any of the tests or scans and she said to me that if i didnt have them at the hospital social services would be called when i had my baby as it would be down as "not caring for my babies needs". The bastards

Horrible woman (not u, my midwife)

It's not really scaremongering though Lynette because there is an association between insufficient folic acid and spina bifada and related issues. But it's not in context in that the numbers of babies affected was not very high, so your chances (as an individual) that there would be a problem were in any case low. It's just that taking folic acid is very low cost/risk so encouraging everyone to take it is a very simple public health measure.

I've watched some 'didn't know they were pregnant' programs in the past, and it's car crash TV really. As I recall (and I watched three or four of them in a row ) the babies were mostly fine, even though most of the mothers didn't realise they were pregnant until they were in labour. Give how much most of us change our lifestyles when we are pregnant I think it probably is surprising that there weren't more problems, but then again the programs were made with the full participation of the parents, and I'd imagine that if things had gone horribly wrong they might not have chosen to go on TV and talk about it.

My condolences to those that have lost babies to antinatal problems, I'm not sure how ds and I would have done without scans (undiagnosed until labour transverse oblique lie).

tbh I only go to the scans and have my bp and bloods done cuz I'm nosey about my own health. That and the fact there's 923874289374234 scare stories on the internet...

wherearemysocks Whaaaa?? Crazy!

I don't think it is that much about pushing ante-natal care as it is trying to inject a bit of dramatic tension which is really not there. Baby is born, it is fine. Yawn!

most of the ladies on this show tend to be older,thinking they are going through menopause,it does happen,having a tilted womb causes the baby bump to grow up instead of out,my sil best mate had repeated neg tests,even at the gp & blood test,finally she refused to leave the gp office unless he sent her for a scan as she was sure she was but as i said all test were neg,went for scan she was nearly 6 months pregnant.

also with all this medical help can still be shit,on local news the other night,a mum whos baby died as staff refused to scan her and sent her home,baby died as core was wrapped round the neck,same fucking hospital my mates baby died they did the same to her,baby stopped moving,she went up there,sent her home,no scans nothing,baby died,you would think they would learn for cases like this!!! fact is babys die with ot without help.

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if the "surprise twin" stories on this thread all concern multiple (heh heh, see what I did there? Geddit?!) women.

In the words of Dr Elizabeth Bryan (a doctor specialising in twin studies, basically), writing in 1992: "Until about ten years ago it was not unusual for the second baby to be discovered only after the delivery of the first. Since the introduction of routine ultrasound scanning in pregnancy this is now rare and only very occasionally happens if one baby is somehow hidden behind his twin."*

There are many anecdotes of twin pregnancies that were not detected until birth, even when the mother did go for antenatal checks! Emma Mahony, author of Double Trouble: Twins and How to Survive Them and herself a twin, relates that her parents didn't know they were having twins, until the delivery room.

I believe that before scanning, picking up multiple pregnancies was a case of feeling another baby through palpitation, finding the heartbeat, or noticing unusual values on blood tests.

I can anecdotally relate that in the UK, after the scanning-revolution , it can still be difficult to find a twin that you already know is there. I was hospitalised during the third trimester for complications, and the staff needed to check the heart rate of both babies.

It took 3 midwives, an on-call doctor, and finally a portable ultrasound machine, before they could get a fix on the heartrate of baby 2! And we knew he was there. Indeed, at one point, he kicked the sensor off.

The incidence of twins in the UK has varied between 1 in 80 pregnancies (1940s and 1950s) to 1 in 104 pregnancies (1979) to 1 in 90 pregnancies (1989). Assuming that the figure is not greatly affected by lack of antenatal care, let us say that perhaps 1 in 90 women who refuse or can not access antenatal care could have twins.

Admittedly, if it is down to philosophical opposition to pre-natal care, rather than lack of access, that figure will get cut down, because twin pregnancy is more likely to cause unpleasant symptoms that push you into making appointments with a nice midwife/doctor.

Basically, it's going to happen regularly, if infrequently. And every time, the story will go around.

*Twins, Triplets and More, page 12