Monday, June 8, 2009

More Questions - About the Birth

Because I was so anxious to follow this story, and didn't want to miss an update, I kept it up on my computer at home. So, when I got home from work tonight, I still had up the birth story from yesterday. The power of putting something on the internet - just because you delete it, doesn't mean it's gone.

According to the story we've heard all along, Little April Rose was diagnosed via amniocentesis (as official as it gets) with Trisomy 13 and Holoprosencephaly.

First question: If "B" (April's mom) did indeed find a midwife who was willing to attempt to make a live birth of a child with these abnormalities in the privacy of B's residence, wouldn't they have had some sort of pediatric specialist or AT THE VERY LEAST a regular pediatrician on site for the birth?

All along, B was justifying her home birth by saying she was very close to the hospital if anything went wrong. As a pregnant woman myself, I have carefully researched both home birth and midwives, and think both are very good option for a lot of people. I do not judge the home birth or midwife option. (Although, based on all my personal research, I found that most midwives would not do home births under complex circumstances.)

But back to my original question: Why wasn't there a doctor at the home for Little April Rose? Let's argue that the answer is because labor is a long process and no one knew exactly when (or if) April was going to be born alive. Fair answer. So then, the next question is, why did it take almost 4 hours for a doctor to get to their home? (When the photographer arrived in 2 hours!!!)

Timeline:
2:48pm - April Rose is born alive
4:20pm - Photographer is at the house to take pictures
6:29pm - The doctor is on the way to the house to see April because "Her heart rate continues to decrease and her breathing is slowing."

Um, your child was diagnosed with Trisomy 13 and Holoprosencephaly in-utero. You do not wait for 4 hours after her birth to get a doctor to the home because of a slowing heart rate!!!

Read a little about Trisomy 13 from the National Institute of Health if you don't know what it involves: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001660.htm

And here for Holoprosencephaly: http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/holoprosencephaly/holoprosencephaly.htm

If my child was diagnosed with either of those conditions in-utero, you can bet your life that a doctor would be with my child before the photographer.

So, why did it take 4 hours to get a doctor to the house that is so close to a medical facility?

8 comments:

  1. I am skeptical of the blog still but since I have bee reading it for a while (since Mckmama posted it as it started) I wanted to say a few things. 1) the reason there wasn't planned to have a doctor there was the reason they had a home birth to begin with! They wanted to spend every moment with the baby and not have medical internentions. The baby has a fatal diagnosis and a doctor can't change that! There is no fixing her.

    2) April supposedly had Lobar Holoprosencephaly and if you add in "lobar" to the search in google images the babies look way different. B did say that April had one of the less severe forms of it.

    3) One of these blogs a "reborn artist" wrote in and said that yes, they do recreations but the picture isn't one of their dolls.

    4) And as far as breastfeeding, a) babies mosly kind of just snack here and there at first and b) when they said they decided they were going to feed her and then posted they were moving to the bedroom I took it as they couldn't get situated to nurse where ever they were and that I undertand personally!

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  2. Playing the devils advocate:
    Lobar Holoprosencephaly-
    Midline craniofacial defects are often absent or mild, sometimes restricted to hypotelorism, but may include cleft lip and palate, as well as other abnormalities.

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  3. Has anyone contacted the picture company Now I lay me down to sleep? I thought they took the pictures for her...

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  4. As a mother of a T13 baby - I don't know what to believe about this. My daughter had full T13 and was born with a cleft lip/palate and other physical abnormalities.

    I am over in the UK and when I went into labour - there was no doctor with us. They told us that they wouldn't interfer as she wasn't expected to live long. Because of her cleft, we tried to bottle feed and she seemed to be taking milk, the midwives were pleased with what she took even though it was only 5ml.

    ALL T13 babies are different. There are none the same as the chromosomes affect each child in a different way. There are markers for this syndrome but I cannot say if the pictures shown are of a baby born with T13 or a doll.

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  5. this is all conjecture. I appreciate the discussion, and I am not saying I dont agree it was fake, but my concern is on the off chance its real, we are TOTALLY abandoning B...and I would take my blog down too if within a day of my sick childs birth there were 20 new sites titled AprilRoseScam.com
    again, just playin the other side here...

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  6. This is probably the only thing I am really questioning about the situation. The conditions she has affect different children in different ways. I think that the pictures are believable despite seeing the reborn pictures, and neither one of my children weighed more than 5lbs 9oz at birth and my 5lb9ozer actually did look a little chubby ;) BUT I cannot fathom a dr going to a private residence to see a very sick baby. Drs are so worried about malpractice suits right now and that is just asking for one. Leaving a sick baby at home? Not going to happen. I just don't think there is one dr around who would do that, especially if she is doing as well as she looks/the updates said. If all that is wrong is her heart she needs to be in a NICU where they could try and save her. The family is still in my thoughts and prayers, I'd rather pray for a fake family than not send my prayers to a family in need.

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  7. Doesn't B. supposedly live in IL? I live near the IL-WI border and one reason we chose to buy a house in WI rather than IL is that in IL it is illegal for a midwife to attend a homebirth. Does it happen?- Yes, but they fly WAY under the radar. I cannot imagine a midwife who is practicing illegally being comfortable with the homebirth being publicized on a well-read blog and a doctor being called to the residence a fe hours later.My WI-licensed midwife told me that there have been cases in IL where a homebirthing mother needed to go to the hospital, and officials notified the police to have them standing by to arrest the midwife.

    Having believed B's blog to be true, and having had two homebirths myself, I thought she was making a good decision to give birth to April at home. But then it "clicked" that she's in IL, where midwife-assisted homebirth is not legal.

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  8. UK mummy here again - in answer to the query about a doctor leaving a sick baby at home - in the case of a T13 baby - yes they would.

    These children are said to be "incompatable with life" and in our case - we were sent home with our child to spend the few precious days that we did have with her in the comfort of home.

    Our daughter started to suffer with apnea and nothing was done for her as this was a symptom of the condition. Pallative care is offered most of the time for these babies so I can understand why they would say the doctor had left them. They would only be called back to confirm death.

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