Yes, well, I had, I've had blood clots in the past and I was diagnosed as having a condition called Factor V Leiden, which means my blood is prone to clotting. And because pregnancy is an added risk of blood clotting we knew in advance that I would have to have treatment throughout the pregnancy for, to thin my blood. So I was put on low molecular weight heparin, which is a daily injection called Fragmin, which I was slightly concerned about being on it, partly because of, you know, whether there would be any risk to the, to the baby and also because the thought of having an injection every day for almost nine months was a bit off-putting. But in fact it wasn't, once we got into the routine of it, it wasn't a major thing at all, and it, and it went fine. And actually I think that probably reduces the risk of miscarriage a lot, because there's a risk of blood clotting in the placenta if you don't have this treatment. So it was, it worked out okay.
So and who discussed the sort of issues and risks around your condition with you?
Well, I, my GP primarily, initially. And I had already had contact with a consultant in [city] who had, who's a specialist in this condition, and she sent a letter to my GP explaining what the treatment should be. And then I went into [town], I went into the local hospital, and met with the consultant there and he confirmed that, what the, the treatment would be. And he was the person that I saw sort of now and again throughout the pregnancy to, to just discuss how things were progressing. He was very helpful.
So did you feel that, confident that that was being sort of looked after and..?
Yes, I did, I felt that everyone knew what the issue was and everyone seemed to be agreed on the treatment. I did actually also consult a few websites on, on the internet. And there was actually a support group for people suffering from this condition with a lot of information about pregnancy, and it confirmed that this was the appropriate treatment to be taking. And in fact at the very beginning, even before I got pregnant, I was slightly reluctant, wondering whether I would actually not, not do this and risk going ahead without having the injections. But having read some of the stories on the website I felt that it was very important that I did go through with this due to the risk of having a miscarriage.
What, what were some of the, what was some of the information that was available on this website?
There were quite a lot of personal stories about people who had lost babies at various stages in the pregnancy because of this condition and not having been diagnosed. And they were all basically saying, “If only we'd known, we could have had the treatment”. There are no known problems to the baby. The risks to, I think there is a slight risk for, to the mother of blood, bone thinning, thinning over a period of time. But it's a minor sort of risk really compared to the sort of positive side of knowing you've got a much higher chance of having a healthy pregnancy. And that, that was all very clear on the website. So it was, it was mostly personal, it was, it's more a sort of exchange of information site between, between people with the condition. |
