Nervous about growing another poorly baby

[DoubleCarrick]

Good morning

I'm 10 weeks pregnant and due my booking in appointment with the midwife tomorrow. My first pregnancy was a mmc at 11+6 and my DS was a poorly baby when he was born.

I had him at home (planned) and everything was ok but by the next day he went down hill. Long and short of it is he was jaundice, got an infection, and then was oxygen dependent for about three weeks (unrelated to the infection, I think). We've been in and out of hospital and he's thankfully, a healthy and happy six month old.

But what if I just grow them poorly? I had lots of scans to check his growth as my tummy wasn't growing quick enough - he was fine. He was born on the 4th percentile for weight and 9th for height. He's now 50th for weight and 98th for height so e obviously wasn't healthy in my tummy.

Does it even work like that? Sorry - bit of a brain dump. I know I'm fortunate that he wasn't severely sick but it was still hard

Tumbleweed I might ask for this thread to be deleted

Was your ds growth restricted? Were there any problems with your placenta? They may offer you growth scans or Doppler scans to check the blood flow to the placenta if that's the case.

Hello!

Sorry you and Ds had a tough start

I think you should ask at your booking in if you can speak to a consultant to discuss this and put your mind at ease.

Its nothing wrong with you, you've just been unlucky. MCs are sadly very common, there are hundreds of reasons for small babies, jaundice is very common and infections are not that uncommon just unlucky.

There was no sign of restricted growth from scans, just my bump wasn't growing quickly enough for their liking. I had fortnightly scans from 32 weeks onwards. He was following the line for growth perfectly even though my bump was dropping down the percentiles.

I think the scary thing was they couldn't work out why he was oxygen dependent. They cured the infection but within 24 hours he was oxygen dependent for no real reason apart from his oxygen saturation kept dropping to about 82% every time they took him off oxygen.

He had an echocardiogram as they thought it was a heart problem and that he'd need open heart surgery but thankfully that came back clear.

I'm seeing the midwife later for my booking in appointment so will have a chat then.

I can understand why you are worried but remember that no two births, babies or pregnancies are the same.
Depending on the infection, babies can develop an oxygen requirement. Did your baby's cultures ever grow anything as the most obvious thing that comes to mind is Group B Strep - if it was this then things can be done in labour/post labour to prevent.
I think it may he worth a chat with the neonatologist who treated your baby, with his notes to go through everything with you again and to reassure you that the chances of this happening again are probably slim. Your midwife or obstetrician should be able to arrange this.

That might be a good call. I had my first midwife appointment today and she is going to chat to the pediatrician and decide from there whether to put me under consultant care.

She said there's no reason why I can't have another home birth as that doesn't appear to have been the problem with Ds but they will make the criteria for admission really low tbf with my son, the midwife was there for six hours after the birth and he still hadn't fed so we should have been admitted that night