by Kirstin Conklin in Uncategorized Tags: blighted ovum, depression, miscarriage, pregnancy, pregnancy loss, reproductive health, sorrow, spontaneous abortion, women's health

It has been a while since I posted. But I have something really important to say, so I’m going to say it here, and hope that it reaches a lot of people, because it’s something we don’t talk about, and that makes us not want to talk about it, even when what we really need is to talk about it, so that it’s not so fucking scary and we maybe don’t feel so goddamned alone.

A friend just posted the following link on FB and I have to say, I think it’s really well said.

Why Miscarriage Matters When You Are Pro-Life

The entire post made me think a lot about pregnancy and the various outcomes. And I think I’m finally able to say my part.

Perhaps I ought not have to say this, but I also feel I should, so that you understand I am not in any way preaching, but rather sharing something that I experienced, in hopes that more people understand. The other author was able to present her viewpoint with grace and without judgement, and I hope I can do the same.

I am Non-Theistic.

I am Pro-Choice.

I believe that choice is each woman’s right. But I must be clear that this belief does not stop me from being extremely envious of those of you who had the choice to make. To those unfamiliar with what being Pro-Choice actually means, the following might seem less Pro when compared to how eloquently the other author explained the Pro-Life side of things. I assure you, just because I would have kept my baby does not mean that I think anyone should be forced to carry to term when they do not wish to.

The following gets a little rambly. But that’s how my brain is these days.

I had a miscarriage and it hurt and continues to hurt like Hell, physically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally.

My baby, our baby, never even had a chance.

We had a pregnancy condition known as Blighted Ovum. I say ‘known’ but the truth is that not very many people know this is even a possibility. We didn’t, and most people we have told haven’t heard of it either.

I am still shocked, stunned, and brokenhearted.

A blighted ovum occurs when the genetic material is somehow messed up. This seems to be the problem causing a huge number of miscarriages. Everyone we talked to simply stated that ‘it’s most likely a problem with the chromosomes’ but no one has ever explained what that means. No doctor, midwife, nurse, article, or blog entry has ever explained why, when the egg and sperm were able to create a pregnancy at all that they could be so . . . . dysfunctional. And that hurts, too. Not knowing hurts. Not understanding hurts.

So what happens when the chromosomes are all effed up? When the gestational sac forms, the fetus simply doesn’t. The material simply does not come together. It does not form. And you are left looking at an ultrasound of a black empty space in your womb where your baby should be.

And then you go home and you cry harder than you have ever cried. And you shake. And you nearly hyperventilate. And you scare the shit out of your dog, and probably all your neighbors. And you figure they probably think you are being murdered, because how can anyone still be alive after wailing so loud for so long and crying until there can’t possibly be anything left to cry out.

And you are left to shakily write an email to your far-flung family members telling them the news that you cannot possibly say out loud during a phone call which you will never ever get through because you’d have to speak with words that someone might be able to understand. Words that in your mind equate to, “Sorry, I’m a big fat liar.” or perhaps, “Just Kidding! LOL.” But in truth, they are words that crush your soul. And you have your husband hit the send button because you can’t bear to do so – to make it real.

And you have to put away the toys you and your husband stealthily bought at Christmastime, and the irreplaceable and probably handmade present sent from your sister wrapped up with a little note “For ???” (the place holder ‘name’ you had given your little Zygote when you first told everyone you were expecting with an adorable family portrait of the two of you pointing to your hidden belly with your dog in the background looking jealous), and the books on pregnancy, and the prenatal workout dvds, and the prenatal vitamins, and the nausea suckers, and the positive HPT, and your hopes and your dreams.

And you have to go on. And you have to find the strength to either tell everyone what you can’t bear to say aloud or suffer in silence pretending everything is all right because you cannot explain it again, you can’t say it out loud.

And you have to wait. You have to wait for that babyless mass in your uterus to decide it knows it no longer belongs there. You have to wait, knowing you are going to miscarry.

You can choose to abort. But then, the doctor could have been wrong. And even though all your symptoms of pregnancy have stopped, you still hold on to that fragment of hope, that tiny little mustard seed of faith, that you might just might have been less far along and maybe your baby will show up soon. Maybe it’s still going to happen.

But then one day you start to bleed, just a little at a time, and for a week you bleed, and you wonder when you’ll stop. Because the midwives and nurses told you that you would probably just experience a heavier than normal period.

[Boy were they fucking wrong.]

And then a week after you started bleeding you wake up at 2:45 in the morning with cramps that feel like a knife is stuck in your SI joint. And you go to the bathroom, and get back in bed, and climb right back out again because you can’t find a position that is comfortable, and then you spend the next 8 or 9 hours basically in labor, mostly sitting on the toilet because the waves of tissue extracting themselves from your uterus just keep on coming. And you crouch, sobbing on the floor between contractions. And you have to, in the middle of all this, call your clients to cancel their appointments for that day and they want to know when they can rebook and you want to say, “I DON’T FUCKING KNOW HOW ABOUT WHEN I AM NOT VOMITING MY LOWER INTESTINES OUT OF MY VAGINA,” but you calmly try to find your pocket calendar and reschedule on a day you hope that you will be able to stand upright again.

And then your pelvis hurts so much that you can barely walk, and your thighs hurt in a bruised sort of way like they’ve been beaten because of how long you sat on the toilet, and you give up your ideas of a perfect natural birth someday, and go to the pharmacy and pick up your narcotics to try to dull the pain of what just happened to you.

And then, slowly, you start to make a list of things you can do now that you are no longer pregnant. It’s a list to try and find some happiness. Ours includes travel, and weight loss (I was 20 lbs overweight when we conceived and I plan to be way healthier before we try again, for my own sake, if for no other reason), and drinking every bottle of my favourite wine that I can get my hands on.

And there is so much fear. Will it happen again? Statistically, probably not. Will something else go wrong? Possibly. There is no way of telling. I did everything right during this pregnancy. No alcohol. Balanced diet. Exercise.

It didn’t matter. There was nothing we could have done differently to prevent it. Nothing.

That doesn’t make it easier.

I have struggled with depression and anger and guilt. I do every day. Every day.

I’m not going to get over it. I am hoping I can get through it.

I hope you never have to experience this first hand. I hope to whatever power is out there that you never have to experience this first hand. It sucks. OK? It sucks. And I am not okay and I won’t suddenly be okay. So please don’t expect me to be.

Know that I am extremely grateful to my amazing husband who has been my stability, my shoulder, my co-mourner, my heart and my light through all of this.

There are a lot of articles on things you should never say to someone in my position and I recommend you look them up real quick before you respond to this or anyone else’s story.

FYI, I don’t take sympathy well. It makes me queasy, to be honest. And advice can go jump off a bridge. Seriously. So, just don’t.

But now you all know a fraction of what I’ve been experiencing for the past two months.

And why when I say I am pro-choice, I mean it with as much of my heart as I can muster.

And yes, it still makes me choke that I did not get that choice.

But everyone deserves your respect and your sympathy, whatever your views have been on abortion and miscarriages. Please just try to spare a little love for every single being, whether they ever made it or not, for whatever reason.