I'm going to take you on a little journey to explain what this cause is all about.
Imagine you are in the shoes of my friend Natalie, it took you 5 years to become pregnant. 5 YEARS! But you finally got pregnant with a precious little boy. You are extremely excited and decorate his room beautifully with all the trimmings. You have a scheduled c-section because of a fibroid that is blocking the birth canal. The day before your scheduled c-section you go in for an appointment, the doppler could not find a heart beat.
Imagine being told that your baby is not alive....
then being sent home only to come back the next day to have the c-section. Having to spend over night knowing that your baby was not alive inside of you. THEN to find out that the cord was wrapped around his neck SIX TIMES! All of this would be heartbreaking to say the least.
Time goes on and your heart begins to heal, it never goes away, that ache inside, but you learn to live with it.
About 10 months after all this you find out that you are pregnant again. Hooray! It didn't take 5 years this time. What a relief! Now everything is okay right? WRONG! Every second, every minute that goes by you are deathly afraid you will lose this one too. If it happens to you once, it could happen again. You can't sleep because you are having nightmares of your baby dying. The next 9 months are going to be unbearable.
But...imagine there is something that can help, something that would bring you the peace of mind you need so badly. Something that will make the next 9 months not a living hell. Its called home monitoring and its a service that a phenomenal doctor in Louisiana provides. Dr. Collins has done extensive research into cord accidents and is a huge advocate of raising awareness of cord accidents.
He has found that if you have cord issues once there is a higher chance of having cord problems again, whether the outcome is the same they don't know but are you willing to take that risk without doing everything you can to prevent it?!........No.
You would do all you could to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Dr. Collins has you come to his office in Louisiana and he does an extensive ultrasound that analyzes the cord specifically, where it is and whether its wrapped or knotted. The reason you have to go all the way out there is because there are few doctors that know how to look for the cord and have the necessary experience. After the ultrasound Dr. Collins sends you home with a home monitoring system that looks something like this:
Every night you strap this on and it measures the baby's heartbeat and any contractions you may be having. You monitor for half an hour and then the machine sends the information to Dr. Collins where he receives it on his PDA, the results can also be sent to your local doctor. You and your baby are constantly being monitored and if there is ANY indication that there is a problem you go straight to the hospital at the first sign of trouble. Not later when you haven't felt the baby move for a while and its too late. If there is a significant drop in heart rate you will know right away and go to the hospital. And if you have any worries or fears you can just strap that baby on and be reassured that your baby is doing fine. Can you even begin to imagine the relief this would bring to you? The SANITY that it would bring to both you and your poor husband who has to live with you?
This service is legit. If you don't believe me...let the news and the moms who have gone through it tell you...
End of story.
What I've just told you about isn't a fictional story, it is unfortunately a very real reality for my friend Natalie. She lost her sweet Branson last June and she needs our help.
You see, this service described above isn't cheap. While it would be nice if it could be offered free, the equipment and time of the doctor does cost money.
Its $2,000.
$2,000 that most people at this young age don't just have lying around. Especially not after your husband just graduated, leaving lots of student loans to pay off, and you just made a major move like Natalie and Rob.
So...what can we do to help?
We can donate to the Peace of Mind Fund. Even if its just $5, it all adds up if we can get the word out. Please consider donating and sharing the word with anyone you know. Feel free to post about this on your blog, website, facebook page, wherever! The more that know the better. If you would be willing to post the button you see on the right on your blog that would be wonderful too.
Also, many of you know that I (Amy...Alexis' mommy) sell hairbows and clips and headbands in honor of Alexis and to benefit Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep. Well, after the 10% that goes to NILMDTS, the rest of my proceeds will go to the Peace of Mind fund until we've raised enough. Now, you have to go to Louisiana for the ultrasound between 28-30 weeks. Natalie is 18 weeks right now...so we have about 10 weeks to get enough money!!!! I have seen the power the blogging world has, how the word can be spread, and how people rally around eachother. Well here is our chance. Let the donations begin! :)
