When I found out I was pregnant with my 2nd child I was over the moon excited. We had done everything you could think of with planning the room, gender reveal, picking out her name. I remember driving across a bridge saying let’s name her Kinslee. My fiancé said no how about that girl off Pretty little liars. I said Aria? He said yes that one. I knew it was a girl from the beginning, which we figured out her name around 10 weeks.
From being 10 weeks pregnant to 38 weeks pregnant was a true nightmare. I was in and out of the ER constantly, at all hours of the day and night. Sometimes I was in there 2x a day due to being in so much pain, not being able to keep anything down, and being so sick I had no energy to get off the couch. I had a 10mm kidney stone in my left urethra that was stuck and if I had surgery to remove it, it would have been a HUGE risk as I would go into labor early. What we settled on was a nephrostomy tube being put into my back to drain my urine into a catheter bag. The joke was I could only pee out of 1 side of my body which was fine because it actually took my mind off the pain I was in.
Let’s fast forward to 20 weeks, when we went to the Anatomy scan to find out the gender. My uncle came with to this appointment and the ultrasound tech handed the gender over and asked him to leave the room. I was confused asking why and what was going on. They wanted to do an internal ultrasound. Next the doc came onto the screen and said we sent your results to your OB, and you need to go see her ASAP. On this long walk to the OB, my uncle heads home to set up (the gender reveal was that night). Doc comes in and it turns out I was dilated, and they wanted the ambulance to bring me to the cities. I refused, and we drove to the cities ourselves. All this happened and I was dilating fast. When I got into surgery to have the cerclage, they told me if I would have been .5cm more dilated I would have delivered her that night. I was 2.5 when I left Hibbing to drive 3.5 hours to be 3.5cm dilated. They sewed me shut and I went home the next day.
Fast forward to November 25 weeks pregnant I began bleeding like I had my period, went in for a checkup and the OB (not my OB) that checked me said I’m fine and sent me home. Terrified I bled until I delivered her at 38weeks. I went into my appointment, as I hadn’t felt baby move since the day before. The OB doc said it’s normal for babies to stop moving because they are getting ready for delivery. I came home and had no movement all night woke up at 5am on Tuesday morning to no movement. I called my mom and we went to the hospital. They had the helicopter waiting for transportation and ambulance waiting for me. By 1130 I was getting off the phone with my fiancé telling him everything was okay. Then within a matter of seconds her heart rate dropped to 70 back up to 120 back down to 65. I hear code pink. There were nurses rushing everywhere, running back and forth. I have never seen so much craziness in my life. It turns out she had passed away in the elevator going down to the OR. They tossed the placenta in the “trash” which they should have saved so it could be tested. Her autopsy report questions about why the placenta never got sent.
I do not want others to feel bad for me I want others to open up and tell the doctors something is off like I did my whole pregnancy and I felt like no one would listen. I have so much more to say. That’s just my whole pregnancy shortened up as best I could. If you want to reach out you most definitely can do. I’m here, I’ve experienced it all.
Thank you,
Aleesha Yost
**Womens stories of loss/birth are always shared directly as they write it from their experience. We only provide light grammatical edits. Names are only used with permission. You can share your story as well by emailing lightafterlossmn@gmail.com. You can share by name or anonymously.