62. My Maine Birth: Megan’s Journey with IVF and her Birth Story at EMMC in Bangor, Maine
Megan: 0:00
So they came in and they're like well, we're going to check your magnesium levels, because they essentially had said that I was going to be on magnesium until 24 hours after I had given birth, and so they had someone come in, they took me off the magnesium and then had someone come in and test my blood and I had magnesium toxicity, so my body had absorbed too much magnesium and that's what was making me really, really sick. And I had voiced my concern at the time, like I don't know how you guys expect me to give birth, feeling how I feel I'm, like I can't sit up, I can barely move, like I don't know how I'm supposed to push out a baby if my cervix even gets to the point where it needs to be, and so, like, no, we definitely understand your concern, we're going to go ahead and we're going to get you off the magnesium and give you some time. I do also want to mention that I had the most lovely and wonderful nurses during my time in labor and delivery Literal angels is the only way that I can describe them and one in particular. Her name was Katrina. She's actually a traveling nurse and she was my nurse. I had all day on Sunday and I think that it was fate that she was my nurse that day.
Megan: 1:24
So she comes in and she's loud and takes up space and is just like, yeah, you know, a man was pregnant and had to do a cervical massage. We wouldn't be doing it that way. Or you get some painkillers and you know joking around, and she was just so funny. I was like I'm your advocate, I'm here for you whatever you want, whatever you need. And they were back to the point of not letting me eat and I was like I wouldn't really like a popsicle or some jello. She's like I'm going to give you a popsicle. What color do you want? I'm like I really want the red popsicles. She goes and she gives me four red popsicles. She was so amazing and as they're coming in and out and they're like, well, we can still try this or we can still try that.
Megan: 2:23
So they're telling me that they can either try to do the balloon again or there's other things that they can try, but they're not really going into any specifics and she was like you know, they have their agenda and you have your agenda. You know they want you to deliver a baby. They don't really care how you deliver the baby. And you could be here, you know, trying all these different things for however long you want. If you want to, she's like, or if you really feel like you have had enough and you want to just call it and you want to do whatever you want to do, she's like you can make that decision.
Megan: 2:58
And so she was really great at saying, like, be your advocate, say what you need. And that doctor ended up coming in and saying, okay, well, what, what would you like to do? We can, you know, do the balloon again. And I was like I literally said I thought I said it in a much nicer tone and way than I did, according to my husband but I said cut me open and get this baby out. And so they're like, okay, well, now things are going to move pretty fast. Like you've made that decision that you want to have a C-section, so you know we'll get things going.
Angela: 3:38
I'm Angela and you're listening to my Main Birth, a space where we share the real life stories of families and their unique birth experiences in the beautiful state of Maine, from our state's biggest hospitals, the birth center births and home births. Every birth story deserves to be heard and celebrated. Whether you're a soon-to-be mom, a seasoned mother or simply interested in the world of birth, these episodes are for you. Welcome to episode 62 of the my Main Birth podcast. Today's birth story guest is Megan, and she shares all about her fertility journey and her experience with IVF. All about her fertility journey and her experience with IVF, and all about her birth at Northern Lights Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. Hi, megan, welcome to my Maine Birth. How?
Megan: 4:36
are you?
Angela: 4:37
I'm good. How are you Good? Thanks for taking the time to chat with me today. You and thanks for taking the time to chat with me today, thank you. So, to get started, will you share a little bit about you and your family?
Megan: 4:53
Yeah, so I live in Herman and my husband and I have been married for gosh it'll be four years in January. Gosh will be four years in January and we have a. He has a daughter from a previous marriage. She's 16 and amazing. She's so smart, and we welcomed little baby Violet last year in June, and so she's a year and a half now and we we have a German shepherd named Ruby, who's almost nine, so you might hear her bark a few times during our conversation. And that's our little family.
Angela: 5:36
Awesome. So you had a bit of a fertility journey before you became pregnant. You want to share about that? Sure, I don't know why.
Megan: 5:48
But I always had just kind of assumed that when it was time for us to try, that it wasn't going to be easy. I just always had this feeling and, sure enough, it wasn't super easy. And I think that there should be way more sex education in schools, because the very limited window that you have to actually get pregnant is insane. Teenagers here, I am a grown woman and I'm, you know, tracking and keeping on top of all these things and, you know, taking these tests to make sure that I'm ovulating. And it was just it's never what you hope it would be. And so we had tried for I don't know, probably like the trying, not trying thing for probably around eight months before we actually, like started actively trying. And I had gone to my OBGYN before. You know, I was just like you know, hey, we're gonna get started. Can you just double check and make sure everything looks good, like, yeah, you know, everything looks perfectly fine. You don't really have any reason as to why this wouldn't work. They were concerned Once I started actually going to see them after it had been, you know, we've been actively trying for six months. Nothing has happened, go back. And they were concerned because my periods are irregular. They've never been regular unless I've been on birth control and so they were worried that either I wasn't ovulating or that I was ovulating and then my ovulation would stop and then it would start again, and which I didn't even know was something that could happen. And so they put me on gosh. It wasn't Clomid, it was a Leprozel, something with an L, I think, which is supposed to be the same thing as Clomid, to help you with your ovulation and releasing eggs but to avoid multiples, which can happen with Clomid. And so I had to be on that for another six months.
Megan: 8:09
And so the thing with fertility journeys is that it's hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait, which is very difficult to process and be involved in when you've already waited so long. So a lot of my girlfriends had already had their children in their mid-20s. All their kids now are turning 8, 9, 10. And here I am with now a one and a half year old. So you feel like you're missing out on so much because you're not a mom, and my girlfriends did a very great job making sure that I felt included and being the auntie to all of the little babies. But it's hard and when you finally find your person and you want to get your life started, to then run into these difficult walls.
Megan: 9:02
So 6 months just trying, 6 months on Clomid, and then they're like, okay, well, we're going to try to do an IUI. So what an IUI is is basically they take the sperm and they put it into like a catheter and they put it up through your cervix and push it through, so that way they know that you are in fact getting the sperm where it needs to go, in case there's like mobility issues or anything like that. And before you would go in, you could also do an ultrasound to have them look and see. It looks like, based on your follicles, that you've got good follicles. Everything looks good. It looks like you are ovulating currently. So when they would inject the sperm, likelihood that sperm would find an egg, and so they want you to do three to five rounds of that before they'll say, okay, now we're going to go ahead and send you over to a fertility specialist and, as anything fertility related, it is certainly not cheap.
Megan: 10:12
So the ultrasound before the IUI itself, just the ultrasound, was $300. And then the IUI, I think, was somewhere around 120-ish. And all of that has to be paid upfront before you can proceed with anything. And so we did three rounds of the IUIs and nothing was working. So they said, okay, at this point it's been a year and three, four months we're going to go ahead and refer you to Boston IBF. And so they referred me to a doctor that actually His name is Dr Alper. He would come up to the Bangor area every other week to see patients out of the office where my OBGYN was, where my OBGYN was, and so getting in an appointment with that took gosh. I think getting to the appointment was another three months. I was able to get it in Bangor because that person, dr Alper, with Boston IVF, he has a remote office, or did when it was Dr Smith's office, and so he would come up twice a month to see people rather than them having to go to Portland or Boston or anything like that.
Megan: 11:31
And so we finally get the meeting. And I'm so excited and we go, and I had high hopes and high expectations for the meeting and I'm very much someone that I utilize humor as a defense mechanism and to lighten the mood, because when you're already going through something that's so challenging, you need a little bit of that levity and he was not. He was very much a wet blanket and didn't say a lot during the meeting. It was a lot of you know oh well, we'll do this test and he talked very much in fertility jargon and acronyms and things that I had no idea what he was talking about. I had no idea what he was talking about and when I would ask questions it was a little bit condescending of like I can't believe, you don't know this or like you should know that, and I did not love that experience surprisingly so. So I actually had called.
Megan: 12:42
Then.
Megan: 12:42
My next appointment was supposed to be with him and it was going to be out another two months because it was the height of summer and it was 2020.
Megan: 12:53
So it was post-COVID and I was honestly surprised that they were still letting us go through with the fertility journey because so much was put on hold and he had a lot of time off in the summer.
Megan: 13:05
So I had no way of getting any other appointment with him, unless I switched doctors which I was completely fine doing because I didn't love him anyways and I had a friend, a co worker, who had actually seen someone else at Boston IVF Dr Landon and she highly recommended him. She had had two babies through IVF with him and finally got into an appointment to see him that by some miracle, he had had a cancellation like two weeks from then and so I was able to get in sooner and he very much was reassuring and kind and hilarious, which I really needed, and he was even like you know, let me know if my humor is too much for you. He's like but when you're dealing with this stuff, you need to have some of that, uh, lightheartedness, and I was like no, please, I really enjoy that because I need that personally, I need that humor. And so we started the process with Dr Lannan and gosh. When did I start taking this was 2021 by this point.
Angela: 14:18
So, after all the IUIs and everything, summer of 2021 was when I started with Dr Lannan summer of 2021 was when I started with Dr Lennon, so for my listeners that might not know with the IUI you're taking pills and with the IVF you're getting injections right.
Megan: 14:35
Yes. So when you do the IUIs, you take pills to make sure that you are fertile and do an ultrasound and then they inject the sperm into your uterus, cervix, that area, lady bits and when you start doing IVF it is injections and there is some oral medication. And I had a girlfriend another coworker, who had been going through it for a few different years and she's like, honestly, she's like get a tackle box Because that's going to be the best thing for all of your medicine to be in. She's like you're gonna have all your syringes, your alcohol swabs, your medications, everything that was in there and it was the best advice I think anyone has ever given me. So anyone going through fertility, get a tackle box to organize all your stuff. And I started with doing oral medication injections. Thank goodness for my husband, because he was the one who did my injections for me the first time he did one of my injections, my injections for me, the first time he did one of my injections I almost passed out because it's just something that you're not used to. And I have a girlfriend who is a nurse and I messaged her and I was like, is this normal? She's like yeah, you just had like it's essentially all of your adrenaline was pumping so hard because you were so nervous or amped up about it that after the shot happened your system just crashed. She's like so that's totally normal. She's like it shouldn't continue to happen, and thankfully it didn't. So the shots and the medication that you're on to increase the number of eggs that you release when you ovulate so typically when you ovulate, you one egg this is so it makes all of your follicles hopefully produce eggs in both of your ovaries, so that way they can go in and they can harvest all of those eggs so they can then fertilize them to create embryos for IVF.
Megan: 16:38
And the medication that they put you on makes you very grumpy because it's a lot of hormones, and it also makes you very bloated and very constipated, which then makes you very uncomfortable. And you do that for, depending on how your body reacts to the medicine, it can be a couple of weeks, it can be four weeks, it could be six weeks. It just really depends on your body. So during that time, every couple of days, I would have to go down to Portland and they would draw my blood. I couldn't have it done in Bangor, so I had to drive two hours down for a 30-second blood draw and then they would call you back in the afternoon and say, okay, we're going to tweak your medicine, so you're going to increase this, you're going to decrease this to hopefully hit the timing right for when they want to actually do your egg harvest.
Megan: 17:35
And thankfully I work for a company that is all throughout the state of Maine, so they have an office in Portland and one of my employees works in Portland.
Megan: 17:44
So it was great that I would just go down, I'd get my blood draw and then I would go work in the Portland office for the day and visit with my employee and go out to lunch. So that made it a lot easier to navigate working while also going through fertility treatments. So I can't remember how many times I am having to go down to Portland to do a blood draw, but I want to say it was three or four times. And then they said, okay, looks like everything is great, we're going to go ahead and schedule your egg retrieval for like two days out from now. So that short window of time goes pretty quickly and you're very distracted because you're getting these shots, you're getting your blood draws and just hoping all the numbers work out. So it's very hard to even try to plan your life around the timeframe that you're doing all that, because you don't know what the next day is going to bring.
Angela: 18:40
So how long was it with you, from when you started until the part where you did the egg harvesting?
Megan: 18:46
three weeks. For me it was for three weeks and I went down and we did the procedure again down in Portland and not, I mean, again, don't really know what to expect, but, um, they do put you out for that and they retrieve the eggs and then they tell you how many they're able to retrieve. So I had a great response and they were able to retrieve 19 eggs, which is really really good. Typically, the average is between like 8 and 12. 8 and 12 is typically how many that they're able to retrieve, and sometimes they're only able to get one or two, depending on how someone's fertility is reacting.
Megan: 19:31
One thing to note and I forgot to mention this is that they still have never found out what my fertility issues and about 30% of women who go through fertility problems it's undetermined, which is, in that much more frustrating because you think, well, what's wrong with me? Especially, we knew it wasn't my husband. He has a daughter, he was also tested, and so you feel that burden of the personal, like it really is something that's wrong with me and it's out of your control. But you feel defective, not to say I think, if someone's in the position of saying, oh well, here's what we can pinpoint. Here's why I'm sure it's equally as frustrating as something that is also outside of their control, but just my personal experience. It was frustrating not having some sort of an answer.
Megan: 20:18
And so then they got the 19 eggs and we decided to do because my fertility issues were unknown. So you can either do a fresh embryo transfer so they can take that egg, they can fertilize it with sperm and once it's an embryo they can transplant it. We chose to test all of our embryos not all of them, I'll get to that in a second but we decided to test them. So they actually froze them. So they, out of the 19 eggs that they retrieved, they take those 19 and then they put each of them into petri dishes and they put the sperm in the petri dish as well, and then they wait to see how many of those eggs fertilize. And then they do a certain number of day blasts and that's how the embryo has grown, and out of the 19 eggs that were retrieved, 12 of those actually became embryos for me, and then that made it to the stage of where they could be deemed like. These are good quality looking embryos. So now we're going to freeze them and test them.
Megan: 21:28
So the frustrating part is when they said hey, you've got 12 embryos, that's great. Most people only have like a maximum of eight. They're like we can test all 12. It's going to be X amount or we can test eight of them and it's going to be like it was significantly less to do, eight versus 12. And so I was like great, I feel super confident, we've got eight embryos, like let's keep all of them frozen, but we'll test eight of them and not test the other four. And in hindsight everything worked out well.
Megan: 22:03
But I had kind of wished we had tested the 12, because out of the eight that they tested, only three of them were quality embryos, and so different things that could rule them out as being quality embryos would be like chromosome abnormalities. Like chromosome abnormalities. Essentially, if you were to implant that embryo it would not thrive or become a baby, a fetus. So of those eight we got three. Which great, we still had three. But in my mind I'm thinking well, what if this first one doesn't work? Because it's a, you know, like 25 to 30% of women it succeed in the first round of doing an embryo transfer. Most of them are in that second to third range and I'm like, well, if we have to do two or three, then that's all the embryos that we've tested. Then we're kind of playing, you know roulette with the other four on if they're going to work or not.
Megan: 23:03
So and I have always wanted a girl. I always wanted a little mini me. I look just like my mom. My mom looks like my grandmother. I wanted a little baby that looked just like me, only had my husband's nose, because we all have the things of ourselves we don't love. I don't love my nose and my husband has the cutest little button nose.
Megan: 23:23
And it happened to be that all of the embryos that we had that were viable were all females. So also I didn't have to choose if I wanted to go with a male or female, which was a huge weight off my shoulders because I didn't want to have to. I wanted a girl, but I also didn't want to have to choose, so they could. They told us that we didn't have to know. But if you're going to give me the option to know or not, I'm going to want to know. And so once you do your egg retrieval, they actually put you back on birth control to help tell when you're able to start your cycle. So they'll say, okay, you're going to take birth control for X long this date you're going to go off of it, so we then can trigger your cycle. So that's what they did.
Megan: 24:08
We were back down to Portland for the transfer and they said you know, these next couple days after you, just, you know, get a lot of rest, do light walking. You know, don't be super active, just let your body rest. And so they actually had. Also, they picked the embryo to choose out of the quality that it was and which was also another relief, like it wasn't up to me to like pick which of these three it was going to be thank goodness there's professionals for that and they, they choose the embryo. And then, from the day that you have your implantation, they say, okay, in 11 days you're going to come back and we're going to dry your blood and then we'll be able to tell you if you're pregnant or not. And I'm like 11 days, that's all it takes is 11 days. But at the same time I'm thinking I have to wait 11 days, like there's no happy medium there.
Megan: 25:14
And so, on that 11th day, that morning, I drove down to Portland, did my blood draw and then I came back that day because I'm like if they're going to call me this afternoon, there's no way I can be in Portland. I need to be home and with my husband. So I worked from home that day and I had my appointment at like 9 o'clock in the morning and then they didn't call me until probably 1.30 in the afternoon and that was agonizing. They know I just want them to call me with my results. And so they call and they're talking about like different levels in your blood and I'm like I don't know what good levels are, I don't know what bad levels are. So like she's saying all these levels and not actually saying anything about if I'm pregnant or not. And so I'm like I'm so sorry to interrupt you, but is this good or is this bad? And she's like, oh, I'm so sorry, this is good, this is great. She's like your levels are high. She's like that means that you're pregnant.
Megan: 26:16
And I just started like screaming and crying and I was so excited and my husband had been like I went to get him when the call came and so it wasn't on speakerphone and he's trying to look at me, engage, like what's happening. And so he's like are these good screams and cries? Are these bad screams and cries? I was like, no, it's good. And so then he gets really excited, and so that was just so exciting. And then I called my boss and I was like I'm going to take the rest of the day off because I can't emotionally comprehend anything else that's happening today. She's like Nope, as you should. So she had been a really great support and I really appreciate that. But so that's how we found out.
Megan: 26:57
And then they're like and now you have to wait six weeks, and then six weeks we'll have you come back down and that's when we'll do your first ultrasound, and so feel really good about everything. And then you're like I don't know, two weeks, a week away from going in for your ultrasound, and you all of a sudden it's going to be the worst thing. The baby's not going to have a heartbeat. You have all the worst case scenarios running through your brain and I just was so nervous, like the entire two-hour car ride down there. And we have this.
Megan: 27:32
So I love listening to true, true crime podcasts as your typical white, millennial woman, uh, and so we would listen to those each time we would go down and back to Portland, and so we're listening to it and my husband's like you're not saying anything, you're not making any commentary, and it's like I'm just like I think I was white knuckling onto like the side of the door and like the console, and like just my whole body was tense, without even realizing that it was tense. So we get down there, we do the ultrasound, and then they are like here's your little tiny jelly bean. And so they're like everything looks great. There's the heartbeat, heartbeat's really strong, and you cry and you do all the things. You're like oh my god, this is real, it's real. And then that's when I was done with Boston IVF. After that first ultrasound, they're like everything looks good, you're going to just transfer to your normal OB and they'll handle everything from here.
Megan: 28:36
And I had been seeing Dr Smith in Bangor before I had started the fertility journey and so I was like great, we're going to go, this is going to be fantastic. And then he announced that he was retiring a month before I was set to give birth. So I had him until we had her in June. I had Dr Smith until probably March, and then in March I transferred my care over to Women's Health, so under Northern Light. So here I am. I've got two or three months to go and I have a brand new OB-GYN that doesn't know anything about my history or my struggles or any of that, which was difficult, but the OB I had I had Dr Sawyer and she was phenomenal. She was great. I really loved her. There was one OB I saw when she was out and I was like, dear God, I hope that this is not the person that delivers my child, because she is the worst bedside manner in the world.
Angela: 29:41
So tell me a little bit more about your pregnancy. How are you feeling, and did you do any other testing?
Megan: 29:49
Yeah. So I hated being pregnant. I am so envious and jealous of those people that are like I've never felt more beautiful and I loved every minute of it. And I loved being able to feel my baby. I hated it. I hated every second of it. I did like when I could start to feel her, because then I felt better mentally, I think, because, like I could feel her moving, I knew she was okay, but I had your typical morning sickness. I remember the week that my placenta was growing. I've never been so exhausted in my entire life.
Megan: 30:28
I went into work and I ended up having to leave early to go home and take naps because I was going to fall asleep at my desk. But I also would eat McDonald's breakfast sandwiches every morning. That was my huge craving is egg and cheese on a biscuit every morning. That was like my huge craving is egg and cheese on a biscuit every morning. That was the only thing that got me through the day.
Megan: 30:49
And then I could not eat chicken. Chicken was like the. I had such an aversion to it For a while I couldn't even look at it. I definitely couldn't eat it. And then, after a while, I could cook with it. I just still couldn't eat it. And then after a while I got to a point where I was okay with chicken. But that was a very rough period of time. I've heard other people say that chicken was their version, but I remember there was one night that my husband and I wanted Mexican. I just wanted a chicken quesadilla so bad. And I was like I'm going to do it, I can eat the chicken. I can eat the chicken because I just wanted it, and so I'm eating it and I'm like not even a quarter of the way through and I'm just like I can't eat this. And then I went and I got sick. And then I came back and I finished eating my chips that I had and my husband was he wouldn't understand.
Megan: 31:50
I was like I'm still hungry, oh, my goodness. Oh, and see, it's like well, I can't eat anymore because I could just hear that from Rome. I was like, well, sorry I ruined your appetite, but I still have one. So chicken was my big aversion. Loved McDonald's breakfast sandwiches, loved chocolate, milk and Gatorade and other than that I felt pretty good during my pregnancy.
Megan: 32:18
My placenta was on the interior, the backside of my stomach. So my doctor was like you'll probably feel her start kicking, like pretty early on. And I think I could feel her like little flutters around 20 weeks. But like 22 weeks is when I really started to notice it. And that was crazy. And I don't think that my husband could start to feel her on the outside until probably closer to 30 weeks and so that like 10 week, 8-10 weeks. He was like Well, I'm jealous that like you to feel her, but I can't. And I was like, well, that's just my perk of having to deal with morning sickness and all this loveliness.
Megan: 33:00
And I had always joked with my girlfriends because they're all these itty bitty, tiny little toothpicks that had the perfect little basketball bellies and I said you guys, when I get pregnant I'm going to look like a busted can of biscuits I'm going to get so swollen Like, oh no, no, you're going to be beautiful. No, I was swollen. I did look like a busted can of biscuits. My shoes didn't fit anymore. I had to buy new shoes. I had the worst cankles.
Megan: 33:31
My husband has a massage chair, so at night I would go up into the massage chair and just put it on my legs so it would massage my calves and my ankles and my feet and that was heaven. Thankfully I work and I sit at a desk so I wasn't on my feet because that probably would have been atrocious. But throughout my pregnancy everything looked really well. For the ultrasounds, the blood work, at Dr Smith's office they did test my urine each week to see if there was protein in it to try to catch preeclampsia. When I switched to Northern Light they didn't do that. They were like we don't really test urine. It's not an accurate indicator if you have it or not. So we're really just going based on, like, how you feel and taking your blood pressure, and I thought that was a little weird.
Angela: 34:21
But I'm not a doctor First time being pregnant when they were testing at Dr Smith's was it normal or was it it was normal?
Megan: 34:32
And it was normal when I started transferring to Northern Light for, like, having my blood pressure taken, and probably when I was like I had only been with Northern Light for not that long a couple weeks, maybe a month and that's when they started to notice that my blood pressure was going higher. And I also had a dentist appointment during that time and because I was pregnant, my dentist also would take my blood pressure and they also noticed that it was high, and so that was something I had mentioned to my doctor and they're like well, let's just like you know, we'll take a urine sample and, you know, do a little bit other testing. And so it did come back that I had preeclampsia.
Angela: 35:14
And how far along were you when that happened?
Megan: 35:17
I was seven, seven and a half months pregnant, because they had already talked about inducing me and delivering me a week early when I was with Dr Smith. And then when I transferred over to Northern Light, they're like, well, we don't really do that, we'll just wait until you go naturally. And then they saw that I did have preeclampsia and they're like, okay, well, we'll induce you three weeks early. So that was our new timeframe that we were working with and I didn't really know a ton about preeclampsia. It's not something that they also really even tell you much about.
Megan: 35:55
Once you have it it's kind of on your own to figure out. All I really knew is that I had high blood pressure but I didn't know the risks associated with that or what could happen to me or the baby because of preeclampsia. I see a lot more of it now that I've given birth and I'm like ignorance is bliss in some way, because I'm kind of glad I didn't know, because I could easily have gone down a rabbit hole of looking at all of the worst worst case imaginable and so I had to go in every week at that point to have my blood pressure taken and like monitor symptoms and things like that. I didn't need to go on any sort of medication at that point, especially because they were going to induce me earlier. They were basically just like don't exert yourself, and I wasn't doing a whole lot of working out at that point in time. So cool.
Angela: 36:48
How many weeks were you when you switched?
Megan: 36:51
I had to have been somewhere between six and seven months. So I did have some time and it was nice that it was weekly, because then you got to build a little bit more of a rapport. And my husband's first wife also had had preeclampsia and so with her she ended up having some preeclampsia issues before she had her baby and so he had been said early on. He's like, oh, I'm just worried that this is going to happen, like I've already been through one pregnancy. And then I came home and I was like I have preeclampsia. So he was super nervous and he was on alert, having gone through that before, and so, yeah, I didn't really have a lot of symptoms coming from it, other than when I would go and they would take my blood pressure and it would be high, which also wasn't super helpful because the parking lot at Northern Light you have to park like way, way far away from the OB, so you're like walking a mile just to get into the office and then they take your blood pressure and they're like, oh, that's really high. I'm like, yeah, I just had to walk a mile to get here, yeah, so then they would make me sit for like 15, 20 minutes and then they would take it again and they'd be like, okay, it's better, but it is still high. So, yeah, they decided to induce me three weeks early, so that was the weekend of June 3rd.
Megan: 38:06
I was definitely anxious the last few weeks, knowing that the birth part was coming. I had survived the pregnancy. Now it's go time and just wondering how postpartum was going to go. I was super anxious about that because I struggle with depression aside from postpartum, and so I had taken my normal medicine the entire time that I was pregnant the way to help get ahead of that. And so I was really anxious about that piece because I just felt like my postpartum depression was going to be difficult and just obviously the whole. You have a tiny little human to care for and not knowing anything really for that, and you take the birthing classes that Northern Light offers and it's great that they offer them to give you something of what to expect. But at the same time it's like I feel like I need a parenting class, not just a birthing class, a parenting class. And I guess pre-COVID they used to do more of that, but then COVID changed the world and that made things all the more interesting. So, leading up to it. They're like Alright, you're going to go in sometime this first week of June, but we don't know when yet. So we'll see you that last week of May and kind of get a game plan then. So again it's the unknown, which I very much do like structure and having a plan and knowing when my leave was going to start.
Megan: 39:33
And also my employer does a employee recognition in May and it happened to be like May 28th and it's when all of our employees come together and it's the most fun celebration and it was going to be our first time back together in person since 2019 because of the COVID years, and so I was like I really hope that I make it long enough that I can go, and I can go to this appreciation night and did make it, but again being basically nine months pregnant eight months, I guess, since I was three weeks early and being very swollen, I was very uncomfortable. And as soon as the awards were done, because one of my employees was getting an award, and as soon as the awards were done, because one of my employees was getting an award, as soon as they announced him, he got his award. He came back I said Congratulations, I'm so proud of you. Thank you, I'm leaving. I left early so I could go home and get my shoes off and I remember my husband taking my shoes off and I just had the imprints of, like the socks and my sneaker laces and he was like, yeah, you were definitely on your feet for too long and I was like but it was worth it. It was worth it.
Megan: 40:42
And then the next day I went out on my leave and so I took that last week leading up to going into the hospital, not knowing if I was going to be going in on like a Tuesday or Wednesday or Friday, just so I could make sure everything around the house was settled, my bags were packed, nursery was good to go, I had all the things that I needed. So we went into the doctors on like a Tuesday and they're like okay, we're going to do your induction on Friday, so don't call us, we'll call you. So we'll call you on Friday when we have a room. We're like but so we'll call you on Friday when we have a room, or like but if you haven't heard from us after five, then call us to see if there's any openings. And so all day you're just anxiously sitting there waiting for the phone call, like can I go to the hospital? Can I not go to the hospital, like what can I do today?
Megan: 41:28
And knowing that, like I would have to eat before I had to go in because I couldn't eat once I got there and really liking food at that point, really have to eat before I had to go in because I couldn't eat once I got there and really liking food at that point, really needing to eat food, so we called it I think 5, 30, and they're like we don't have anything, but we'll call you if we get anything. So we're like, okay, so, like you know, 9, 9, 30 rolls around. We haven't heard anything. We're like, okay, well, we're gonna get ready for bed then, I guess. So we get ready for bed and 9.30 rolls around, we haven't heard anything. We're like, okay, well, we're gonna get ready for bed then, I guess. So we get ready for bed and we get settled in around, like I don't know 10. And they called at 10.30 and they're like we've got a room. Okay, let me get out of my comfy PJs and get everything going.
Megan: 42:09
And so we ended up getting to the hospital and getting up to the room by 1130. So half an hour to get that one full day on your insurance for 30 minutes. And so we got up to the room, got settled and then they gave me oral medication to try to soften my cervix, because my cervix was completely closed. There was no softening, there was no dilation, nothing. It was completely shut. So they're like we'll give this to you every I can't remember if it was four to six hours or you could only do four doses in 24 hours and they don't like to give that fourth dose. So they would really ideally like to get you in the first one to three doses and they don't like to give that fourth dose. So they would really ideally like to get you in the first one to three doses and then, if not, switch to something else. So they gave me that first dose.
Megan: 43:02
I was hooked up to the monitors all night and the morning still nothing. Gave me another dose of it Couldn't eat still during that time, just in case you know, know whatever was going to happen. And by the time the third dose came, I still nothing. And so like, okay, well, we'll give you the third dose and then we'll also start you on pitocin to see if that like gets things moving. And so this is Saturday evening now, by the time I've had the third dose, and they start the Pitocin and they had me hooked up to a blood pressure monitor that every automatic you know, I don't know 30 minutes or so would take my blood pressure, and so they noticed that my blood pressure was starting to go up. Actually, I should need to pause right there and back up a little bit, because before they did the third pill, they're like if you want a chance to shower, now's the time to shower, and this is just some comedic relief to add to the story.
Megan: 44:02
So I go in, I go to shower, and I noticed that the shower is the drain is plugged and that it is coming up a little bit, but I don't really, I'm not really paying attention to it until I finish my shower and I go to get out and the showers in Northern light. Essentially, the shower floor is the bathroom floor. They just have this little rubber bumper that is between the shower and the rest of the bathroom to prevent that water from going anywhere, which I also didn't notice. I had flooded the bathroom when I was showering and in addition to flooding the bathroom, I flooded the entire entryway to my hospital room. So shower flooded, bathroom, whole entryway, and my husband was in the room not noticing anything and I opened the door and I'm just like we have a problem. And he's like what? And I was like I didn't realize the train was that clogged and I flooded the entire, basically, room and so he had to call the nurses and all these nurses come and they're trying to call maintenance and they're trying to like stop everything up with towels and like oh my gosh, I felt awful for these poor nurses, but at the same time I was like this would happen to me now, that like why would I not have flooded my hospital room? So that was just some some fun there.
Megan: 45:30
So by the time the third dose and the Pitocin, that's when my blood pressure started to get higher and for the first time I actually started noticing symptoms of my blood pressure being higher.
Megan: 45:41
So my vision got really, really blurry and I only noticed it when I would look at the TV and I could see that the words on the TV were blurred and I was super, super sensitive to light.
Megan: 45:54
And so they came in and like, okay, well, we're going to do a magnesium drip, essentially, and that's going to help reduce your blood pressure and I'm like, okay, you know, find, whether, like it'll probably make you really tired, like lethargic, just kind of feel like not great. And I'm like, oh cool, awesome, this is fantastic. So they go and they set me up with the magnesium and then a nurse comes in and they start wrapping the rails of my bed with like padding and sheets. And I was like what, what's that for? And they're like Well, your blood pressure is so high you could have a seizure. And if you have a seizure, pressure is so high you could have a seizure. And if you have a seizure, this is to protect your head from the like hard metal and plastic of the bed rails. And I was like, oh okay, I didn't realize that we were at like seizure level high well.
Angela: 46:48
So when you said that your blood pressure didn't go up until the Pitocin was started, was that Okay?
Megan: 46:55
Yeah, so they do the magnesium and then third pill, they go to do like the it's like around midnight or like we're going to check to see how things are going, see if after the third dose of Pitocin, like anything is going anywhere. And so they do a cervical check still absolutely closed, nothing, there's been no progress at all. And so I had Dr Rinaldi that evening. So if you know, dr Rinaldi, wonderful, kind woman and the tiniest little thing, and she's like we're going to do a cervical massage. And I was like, okay, I don't know what that is, but you think that the word massage makes it sound pleasant. It's the most probably excruciating pain I've ever been in in my entire life. And so she massaged my cervix for like 10 to 15 minutes and I'm just holding on to my husband's hand, I'm holding on to the nurse's hand and I am hysterically crying. And my husband described it. He's like you were trying to crawl backwards up the bed and I was like I wish I could accurately describe how that felt. I was like but there are no words for how that was and it was excruciating. And they tried to then do the balloon dilation. So but my cervix is closed still, even after the cervical massage. So they're like we're gonna put it in and still blow it up and hope that the pressure of the balloon your cervix causes something, anything to work. And so we're going to leave that in for some time to see if it works and then we'll check you tomorrow. So very fun sleeping that night Hooked up to all the monitors and my blood pressure cuff and my magnesium drip, and with a balloon up in my lady bits.
Megan: 48:55
So comfortable. And so the next morning they're like well, you can eat breakfast. And I'm like great, I have not eaten in almost a day and a half. I would love a breakfast sandwich. And so I eat the breakfast sandwich and it's like the best thing that I've ever had in my life because I hadn't eaten in so long. And as soon as I finish back up comes the breakfast sandwich and I just felt awful, felt so awful. It felt like I had the flu and I couldn't even sit up in bed anymore. That's how awful I felt. And so they came in and they're like well, we're going to check your magnesium levels, because they essentially had said that I was going to be on magnesium until 24 hours after I had given birth, and so they had someone come in. They took me off the magnesium and then had someone come in and test my blood and I had magnesium toxicity, so my body had absorbed too much magnesium and that's what was making me really, really sick. And I had voiced my concern at the time, like I don't know how you guys expect me to give birth when how feeling, how I feel like I can't sit up, I can barely move, like I don't know how I'm supposed to push out a baby if I even my cervix even gets to the point where it needs to be, and so like no, we definitely understand your concern, we're going to go ahead and we're going to get you off the magnesium and give you some time.
Megan: 50:35
I do also want to mention that I had the most lovely and wonderful nurses during my time in labor and delivery Literal angels is the only way that I can describe them and one in particular. Her name was Katrina. She's actually a traveling nurse particular. Her name was Katrina, she's actually a traveling nurse and she was my nurse. I had all day on Sunday and I think that it was fate that she was my nurse that day. So she comes in and she's loud and takes up space and is just like I'm here for you, I'm your advocate. If you don't feel comfortable saying something, you tell me and I will tell them and I will make sure that it happens or it doesn't happen.
Megan: 51:19
And she had heard about my wonderful cervical massage and she started joking. She's like, yeah, you know, a man was pregnant and had to do a cervical massage. We wouldn't be doing it that way. Or you get some painkillers and you know joking around and she was just so funny. I was like I'm your advocate, I'm here for you, whatever you want, whatever you need. And they were back to the point of not letting me eat and I was like I wouldn't really like a popsicle or some jello. She's like I'm gonna give you a popsicle, what color you want. I'm like I really want the red popsicles. She goes and she gets me four red popsicles.
Megan: 51:52
She was so amazing and as they're coming in and out and they're like well, we can still try this or we can still try that. So they're telling me that they can either try to do the balloon again or there's other things that they can try, but they're not really going into any specifics. And she was like you know, they have their agenda and you have your agenda. You know they want you to deliver a baby. They don't really care how you deliver the baby. And you could be here, you know, trying all these different things for however long you want. If you want to, she's like, or if you really feel like you have had enough and you want to just call it and you want to do whatever you want to do, she's like you can make that decision. And so she was really great at saying, like, be your own advocate, say what you need.
Megan: 52:44
And that doctor ended up coming in and saying, okay, well, what, what would you like to do? We can, can do the balloon again. And I was like I literally said I thought I said it in a much nicer tone and way than I did, according to my husband but I said cut me open and get this baby out. And so they're like, okay, well, now things are going to move pretty fast. You've made that decision that you want to have a C-section, so you know we'll get things going.
Megan: 53:15
And it worked out really well because my nurse Katrina because it was early enough, she was going to be able to get it in before she left for the day at the end of her shift and she's, like it was just meant to be. I was meant to be here to, you know, help you through this. And so they get my husband all suited up. They, you know, are double checking with the anesthesiologist if the popsicles I ate were going to cause any concern. And so they got everything ready and they, you know, bring me into the room and I tell my husband whatever you do, don't look behind the curtain. Whatever you do, don't look behind the curtain.
Megan: 53:50
And we had had conversations before going in. I was like are you gonna cut the umbilical cord? Do you want to cut the umbilical cord? He's like I do not. And I'm like cool, I'm okay with that, you don't have to. If it were me, I probably would not want to do that either. And so they're getting me all set up to do the epidural or the anesthesia and my back is super ticklish, I'm super anxious and nervous and they're like you absolutely cannot move. And then that means that I want to move, because you just have told me that I can't, even if, like it's an unconscious. I know I shouldn't. I want to.
Megan: 54:30
And so Katrina came in and she was wonderful and she put her arms around my shoulders and she put my arms around her and she put her forehead to my forehead. She's like we're just going to sit here and we're just going to breathe together for a little bit. I just need you to relax. And she's like okay, she's like you're going to feel a pinch. And so she really like, got me through that part. And she's like, if at any point, like you feel like you need oxygen, if it's like hard to breathe or whatever, like just let us know. And the feeling of the anesthesia like taking over your body is bizarre and uncomfortable feeling, and it felt like my body was tingling, but in a really not good way, and so that made me really anxious and I was like can I have some oxygen? And they're like are you having a hard time breathing? I'm like no, but I'm anxious and I feel like that will help. And so it got me some oxygen, like, okay, well, we're gonna start doing everything. It got me some oxygen like, okay, well, we're gonna, you know, start doing everything. And so they cut me out, pull her out. She's beautiful.
Megan: 55:39
They put her on my chest. My husband's crying, I'm crying, and they're like all right, we're gonna, you know, cut the umbilical cord and so they're like, dad, do you want to do it? And then they just kind of like ushered him over to do it and so he's like, well, the thing is is they tell you to not go behind the curtain, but you cut the umbilical cord behind the curtain. He goes, and so I look over. He's like I shouldn't have looked over like, and I look over and they're just jamming towels into this like open wound that is your stomach, and he's like it was disgusting. He's like how I didn't pass out? He's like I'll never know. So he cuts the umbilical cord.
Megan: 56:17
They put her and then the like magical part was that they're like we'll see if she'll like breastfeed, see if you can get her to latch, and so we did that. And then like milk was actually coming out as she was doing it and I just remember looking down and being like this doesn't seem real, like this does not seem like it's actually happening, like I just had a baby and I'm breastfeeding a baby, like it just was so surreal. And then I really don't remember a lot after that, I think because of the adrenaline and the anesthesia and the magnesium and just the adrenaline and everything of it all. I don't remember a lot of that night. So she was born on 6'5", at 6'55", weighing 6 pounds 5 ounces, and so 6s and 5s are our lucky numbers around here now. Still haven't won the lottery though, which is kind of a bummer, so I don't remember a lot of that being so out of it.
Megan: 57:29
And I do remember my blood pressure was still a concern that they weren't able to get that under control. I remember waking up the next day and they're like you have a catheter, you're not going to be able to walk for a while, you're not going to be able to get out of bed because of the C-section, you won't be able to feel your legs, yada, yada. And so once you're 24 hours post C-section, then we'll take out the catheter and see how you can walk and all that stuff. And so I remember that part. So I remember getting 24 hours post and them helping me up and like, okay, lift up your legs, almost like you're trying to march, and it was like my legs were made out of lead. I remember trying to lift my legs and it being very difficult and they're like we know it seems impossible right now, but we promise you tomorrow morning it's going to be way better.
Megan: 58:25
And I just remember my incision like burning, really, really bad, especially trying to lift my legs. Bad, especially trying to lift my legs. And so they're like, okay, well, we're now going to move you over into like the actual postpartum part of the hospital, which is a much smaller room and a different level of care that I had been receiving and labor and delivery still great, but just not the same. So the next day they finally let me shower and I don't think I've ever been so grateful for a shower in my life. But that's also when I could remove the like gauze and everything, the bandage, I guess, over my incision. And when I removed it I I noticed that like one side hurt a lot more than the other, which they said was normal. But I also had a lot of blisters. And so when the nurse came in, uh, she had said that I ended up having a reaction to the adhesive that they had used to seal the incision and that's why I had blisters, and she said the blisters, honestly, is probably what made it hurt more than the actual incision itself.
Megan: 59:45
So we were in the hospital for so we had her Sunday night. We were in the hospital until Thursday afternoon Because that entire time they were having difficulty getting my blood pressure under control, getting my blood pressure under control, and I remember them even on Thursday like not really wanting to send me home. But I think they knew for, like my mental health, that I needed to go home because I I just could not be in the hospital room anymore. I just needed my space and my house and I was like, honestly, I'm like that might be better for my blood pressure to go home and just like, have my stuff and be safe. And so they let me go home. Thursday.
Megan: 1:00:30
If I went back to the doctor's office on Friday to have my blood pressure done and we were super stressed because where I had magnesium, they considered Violet what they call a mag baby, so she was also super lethargic and not eating well. It also had impacted my milk from coming in, so we were thankfully able to use donor milk when we were in the hospital to help with that. But she ended up losing over 10% of her body weight and so they were really concerned about that and talking to us about supplementing the formula, obviously, and so that Friday after we got discharged from the hospital, she also had an appointment at the pediatrics to have them check on her weight and from Thursday to Friday thankfully she didn't lose any, she stayed the same but we ended up having to go back on that Monday for another appointment just to keep checking on her and make sure that we were. I was still nursing and pumping in the offset and supplementing with formula and I knew breastfeeding would be hard. But I didn't anticipate just how difficult it was going to be and I had great nurses lactation nurses in the hospital to help through that and even afterwards calling and guiding me through that. So, as I mentioned, she had an appointment Monday to go in for her next weight check.
Megan: 1:02:03
So Sunday night was, uh, woke up at three o'clock in the morning to do her you know, three hour time to night feed. And because I had had a C-section, I really didn't have a lot of postpartum bleeding, it was really quite minimal. And so when I woke up at three and I sat up to turn off my alarm and not to be graphic or TMI, but like what the gush? So I definitely felt that gush when I sat up and I was like, oh, that's interesting. So I went to the bathroom before I woke up my husband or got her to do her feeding. And so I went to the bathroom and I went to sit down and I noticed that my pad was completely full of blood and my pants had gotten blood on them, and when I was sitting there it literally sounded like a faucet had turned on and it was just blood pouring.
Megan: 1:03:06
And so I yelled at my husband and however he heard me was amazing, because we were in the hospital and I had called to him two feet away from me and he wouldn't wake up. I'd have to throw something at him. But he heard me in the other room and he came and he's't wake up. I'd have to, like, throw something at him. But he heard me in the other room and he came and he's like what's wrong? And he had said he's like I knew in the tone of your voice because, like that, something was wrong. And so he came in and I was like do you hear that sound? I was like that's blood. I was like I'm not peeing, that's blood. And he's like oh my god.
Megan: 1:03:38
And so I'm calling my doctor's office and they're like yep, you need to come into the emergency room. And I'm asking you know, can my husband drive me there. Do I need to call an ambulance? Like, what should I be doing? And of course, they can't tell you what you should do. You have to make that choice for yourself.
Megan: 1:03:58
And I was like, well, I don't feel like it's going to be great if my husband is driving, so I'm just going to call an ambulance, I'm going to call 9-1-1, and so I'm sitting on the toilet, I'm on the phone with 9-1-1 and then I'm telling my husband because he's hypoglycemic and I'm like I need you to go and get a snack, I need you to get a banana, I need you, like all these things, because I can't have you also being the medical emergency. Like, I need you to like call my mom and call these people and like, try to get someone like here, and so he is grabbing a snack, or he's trying to call my mom. He's able to get a hold of my mom. She's going to come over and be with a violet because he's like I wasn't going to let you go in the ambulance by yourself because, like, and obviously we couldn't bring the baby. So, um, my mom ended up getting here right as they were ready to take me out and I had also called a couple of my girlfriends in case my mom hadn't answered. One of them is a nurse at Northern Light and I was like I know you're my emergency nurse person and I call you all the time. I was like I just had to call 911. And can you come and watch my baby? She's like what are you doing? What is happening? And so she was wonderful. Even though she had to be up and work at 7 o'clock in the morning, she came over to be with my mom and help her get violet settled and figure out formula for her and what the routine was. And then my other girlfriend that I had called uh, had woken up at some point and saw that I had messaged her and was calling me back as we were being wheeled into the emergency room. And my husband answered and he's like call Kelly, she knows what's happening, I'm up on her. And she was wonderful enough that she actually came and watched Violet during the day and ended up taking her to her pediatrician's appointment where she had to have her weight checked, because obviously we were unable to do so. So I'm very thankful for my village of people that were helpful in that point of time.
Megan: 1:06:04
So along we go in the ambulance and, as I mentioned earlier, I am someone who likes to diffuse situations with humor. So I'm back there cracking jokes and my husband is in the front seat thinking that I might be dying, and being so annoyed at me that I'm cracking jokes and not taking this seriously. And so we get to the hospital, they get us in there, we get all settled and thankfully my doctor, dr Sawyer, was the OB that was on in the emergency room that night. So I was able to see her and she was wonderful and reassuring. But it was the end of her shift and the OB that was taking over was OB that I had mentioned earlier and that had zero bedside manner, and I absolutely did not like and I was like, are you sure that you can't stay? Like, does it have to be her? And she's like I will say, say, despite her bedside manner, she's like, she is a very good doctor, you're in good hands. And I was like, okay, and that doctor never came to see me. So, worked out, in the end I didn't have to see her.
Megan: 1:07:16
Um, she just called in orders and so they were trying to figure out at the time if something had been nicked when my C-section had happened or if it had been a clot that had let loose or something else that had happened. So I ended up having to have an internal ultrasound done and they still couldn't quite tell on that if it was a clot or if it was a cut. So they're like we're going gonna put you on some clotting medicine to see if that alleviates the issue. If it does, then we know it was the clot and not you have a cut or somewhere. And so they put me on the clotting medicine. It ended up being it had been a clot that had just let loose. Thankfully I didn't lose enough blood where I needed a like blood transfusion, but I did need to have um Venifer, which is an iron transfusion, and so they gave me that that night and then they ended up giving it to me again before I was discharged and I still have a permanent scar on my hand from that because it ended up leaking into like because it's very corrosive onto your veins end up leaking into my hand. So I will permanently have this little dot from my venifera transfusion.
Megan: 1:08:43
So I was in the hospital Once they got the clotting figured out. They were once again concerned about my blood pressure because it was still not under control from when they had discharged me before. So that's actually why they ended up keeping me for longer so they could figure out that blood pressure. So they finally discharged me from the hospital and they're like we hope we don't have to see you again. We love that we were able to see you and they were gracious enough because I was breastfeeding.
Megan: 1:09:14
They did let Violet come and stay at the hospital, but my husband had to be with her the whole time. So I went about 19 hours without seeing her and she wasn't even a week old, and so the reunion was. I just bawled my eyes out and I was, even though I was concerned a lot about postpartum depression. That actually really wasn't bad. But what I was not expecting was I had postpartum anxiety pretty severely, to the point where, like our mailboxes across the road and I would walk across the road and get the mail when I was pregnant. But I wouldn't let my husband walk across the road and get the mail because I was afraid he would get hit by a car and he would get hit by a car. So I was thankful enough that my doctor took it seriously enough and helped me with increasing my medicine and then, three weeks after that I ended up back in the ER again because I had kidney stones. So that was fun.
Megan: 1:10:17
And then we had her in June and then in November I ended up getting a herniated disc in my neck from excessive bending and picking up of this little baby. And then this past weekend I ended up getting mother's thumb, which is the tendonitis from picking your baby up this way. One of my coworkers, actually a dad, he ended up getting it in both of his thumbs pretty severely and it was from picking up like that because it's putting that pressure on those tendons. And so when I started to have it I was like, do you think that this is what it is? And he's like, oh yeah, I'm pretty confident. And then when I went to, the doctors are like, yeah, that's exactly what it is here, where this blint and pain medicine, and try not to lift her that way.
Angela: 1:11:09
Now, as a final question if you were to give advice to expecting parents, or even new parents, what would be the biggest thing that you would say to them?
Megan: 1:11:20
Yeah, I would say, ultimately, throughout a fertility journey, throughout pregnancy and postpartum, is you really do have to be your own advocate. Like you said, you know, you know your body best, you know yourself best and you're really the only one that can make whatever decisions that you need. And you need to be vocal enough that people are hearing you, because in this day and age as unfortunate as it is is everyone wants the easy way out and it's not always what is needed, and you know, that was something I was pretty vocal about when I was going through my for my fertility journey. Is that something that not a lot of people talk about? Because they have all sorts of feelings associated with that, whether it, you know, be shame, or there is something wrong with you, or embarrassment, or it's just not something that a lot of people talk about, and that was. I want to change the narrative on that and be like this is something that people go through and it is normal to talk about and it's we shouldn't be asking people when they're going to be having children because we don't know what's happening in their lives to make that why they're not having kids. There's a whole. It's the tip of the iceberg. There's all the stuff that you see and all the stuff that you don't see and just making sure that people know that they're not alone and that they have someone else to lean on.
Megan: 1:12:48
I had a really great 2 co-workers who were going through it or had been through it and had they not talked about it I wouldn't have known, and they ended up being really great sources of information and knowledge and comfort and almost our own little community of people to keep each other going essentially and encourage you and just have someone to lean on. And I really encourage other people that are going through that to talk about it and to build that support, because it can be very isolating and very lonely going through it and a lot on your mental health, your physical health, your emotional. It impacts and I mean also financially it's a huge impact. So it impacts all the different areas of your wellness and just be open about it. And that's also when I was in the hospital.
Megan: 1:13:46
Having that nurse really pushed me to be my own advocate.
Megan: 1:13:49
Society to be like, oh great, you have this baby and now go raise it, with very little help or support. And I will say that Maine does have a program that they talk about in at Northern Light they mentioned it to me where they offer a lot of different postpartum services, and I definitely recommend that people take advantage of those. We had home healthcare person come in and not only check up on me but also check up on Violet and make sure that she was hitting her different developmental milestones, which was really great because I did struggle with breastfeeding for a while before I decided that I just need to not do that anymore and that was again me being my own advocate versus the stigma of the world telling you that you need to breastfeed your child, especially when we're having a national formula shortage. It's not easy and it's like my body just could not support it. Like clearly I had had enough medical issues to the point where I needed to make that decision and I needed to be OK with it.
Angela: 1:15:08
Yeah Well, thank you so much, Megan. I appreciate you for being open and willing to share your story with us today.
Megan: 1:15:18
Thank you. I am glad that I saw your post because, I mean, my husband and I have talked about how we really just need to sit down and like record everything that happened, because there was just so many things and so many details. So I am appreciative of you for wanting to chat.
Angela: 1:15:37
And that's the end of another episode of the my Main Birth podcast. Thank you for joining me and listening. I hope that the stories shared here have been inspiring or informative to all of my listeners. If you're looking to capture your own birth story or for doula support for your upcoming birth, head over to my website, mymainbirthcom and check out my packages. I am a certified professional birth photographer and experienced doula, and I offer in-person services to families throughout the state of Maine, as well as virtual birth coaching worldwide.
Angela: 1:16:18
I want to invite you to grab my top free resource for newly pregnant moms. It's called 37 questions to ask your care provider whether you've already established care or if you are still in the process of interviewing new providers. This resource is for you. Not only are you going to get the questions to ask, but I also share how to assess their answers and the major red flags that you should be looking for. So go grab that. It's at mymainbirthcom slash download. Thank you again for tuning in and I look forward to bringing you more amazing birth stories. Don't forget to subscribe and leave me a review, and I'll see you back here again next week.