Tenth Prenatal Dr Visit

Joe wasn’t able to go with me to the doctor today.  He’s been working insane hours and needed to sleep which is probably good since I had my Strep B test today.  Step B is a bacteria that can be present in the vagina or rectum that’s harmless to adults but can be harmful for babies and can infect them during delivery.  If I test positive I’ll be given antibiotics during delivery and that’s about it.  The doctor had to do a swab of my vagina and rectum.  The rectum swab was kind of painful and caused me to scream out a little bit.  Kind of painful but quick.  Then she just did the heart monitoring. 

She mentioned that my mucus plug could come out at any time but that doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll go into labor (it can happen weeks before labor).  The mucus plug coming out is called The Bloody Show, which is a horribly unappealing name if you ask me.  It basically looks like a period but should be less and less every time I go to the bathroom.  If it doesn’t lessen over time I should call her or go to the hospital.  The plug keeps bacteria out of the uterus to protect the baby but comes out as labor approaches.  She went over how to tell if my water breaks.  It can break without contractions and if that happens I should just go to the hospital.  She also went over how to tell if contractions are real labor or not.  I have been having cramps lately but they’re very irregular and sporadic.  They’re most likely Braxton Hicks contractions that are basically practice contractions.  Obviously labor cramps will come regularly and increase in intensity and frequency as time goes on.  Once they’ve been consistent for over an hour I should go to the hospital.  She said I don’t need to call her first but I’m welcome to if I want.  The hospital knows to call her and she’s on call 24 hours so they’ll call her in for the delivery.

I asked her more questions and she was very informative and helpful in answering.  I went over my birth plan with her.  I asked her about getting the epidural and if it will slow labor if I get it before being 6cm dilated as the woman in the labor class mentioned.  She actually seemed kind of mad at the teacher of the class and said they were misinforming people and that it isn’t true at all.  All labor is different and paced differently and an epidural has no affect on dilation.  She said that in her personal opinion she recommends that I get the epidural if I want it as soon as I can get it so that I can be alert and enjoy my labor instead of being miserable and in so much prolonged pain.  She said getting the epidural earlier will make labor and the birth of my child a much more pleasant experience.  She said she’s going to call Valley Presbyterian Hospital and tell the teacher of the labor class to stop misinforming her patients.  Apparently there have been several other patients of hers that asked about if an epidural slows down labor.  She also said that episiotomies are no longer performed because most women tear during labor normally and an episiotomy just makes the tear worse because there’s an incision and then the incision will tear too.  She said episiotomies are only performed now a days if the baby is actually stuck.

I asked her again about the rib pain since it’s worse but she said it’s just something I have to deal with until the baby is born.  She also asked me if I was eating less.  She said it’s common because my stomach is so crunched up against my organs there’s not much room.  I also asked her about the mole that appeared near my nipple and when I showed her I noticed that a second smaller one had popped up as well.  She looked it over and said it was normal and that she’d actually seen bigger ones appear on other patients.  She said she could place the order for my breastpump now so they should be calling me in a week to confirm shipping.  I feel a lot better now after discussing everything with her. 

She scheduled me to come back in a week and a half when I’ll be 37 weeks.  Wow, in just nine days I’ll be full term!  She said she’ll do an ultrasound next visit to see the position of the baby as it’s going to be pretty much set where it is until delivery and that after that she’ll see me every week until the baby arrives.  I can’t believe how close we are!

After leaving my appointment, I went to the hospital across the street to finish my pre-registration.  I had to fill out an admittance form for myself and the baby and give them my insurance card and driver’s license to make copies.  That was basically it.  I didn’t have to submit my co-pay or anything, which is good because I’d rather get a paper itemized bill in the mail.