THYROID DISEASE AND PREGNANCY

In a post last week, I wrote about how having a thyroid condition can affect your fertility.

http://onereachinganother.blogspot.com/2011/06/thyroid-disease-and-fertility.html

For this post I will focussing on having a thyroid condition and being pregnant. Having a thyroid condition means that you either have hypothyroidism (having an under-active thyroid gland) or hyperthyroidism (having an overactive thyroid gland).

Pregnant women who are experiencing tiredness and weight gain, because these are some of the usual signs of pregnancy, will often not think that these symptoms could be associated with hypothyroidism. A blood test, measuring your TSH level, is the best way to know if you have hypothyroidism.

If you have been diagnosed with this condition, then your doctor will look at treating you with thyroid hormone medication to normalise your thyroid functions. This medication is completely safe to take during pregnancy because it is the same hormone that is produced by the body, for the normal function of the thyroid.

Although hypothyroidism is the most common thyroid condition known to affect pregnant women, your pregnancy can also be affected by hyperthyroidism as well. In the same way that tiredness and weight gain, (signs of hypothyroidism) can be overlooked as just pregnancy symptoms, nervousness, weight loss, nausea, feeling warm among others(all signs of hyperthyroidism) can also be overlooked as mere pregnancy symptoms.

A pregnant women who has been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, must seek to have this condition controlled because miscarriages and birth defects very often will occur.  Treatment includes taking antithyroid medications, which will cut down the thyroids overproduction of hormones.

For much more on this subject, please visit the site below:-

http://www.endocrineweb.com/conditions/thyroid/thyroid-problems-pregnancy

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WHEN YOUR EARLY PREGNANCY SYMPTOMS SUDDENLY DISSAPPEARS

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For a couple of my miscarriages, my early pregnancy symptoms just suddenly disappeared and I knew something was wrong.  As a result of this, when I was pregnant with my son and had days when my pregnancy symptoms would be mild or not even present at all, I immediately began to worry.  I remember when I went for my first visit with my OB/GYN, I hardly had any symptoms and I was very terrified that I might have miscarried.

I always wondered why this is so, as this very troubling for those of us who struggle to become pregnant, and then have to worry that we might be miscarrying when our pregnancy symptoms, one day, just disappear.

Upon research I have found out that pregnancy symptoms can in fact be very intense one day and the next you feel like your normal self again. Sadly, there has been no mention in the research material why this is so, but many women who have ever been pregnant can attest to this. Please note though, that you could be miscarrying if your pregnancy symptoms disappear, and especially if there is evidence of spotting. It is therefore advised that you see your doctor immediately if this is happening to you.

Early pregnancy symptoms can be very challenging to cope with, but it is very comforting to have them stick around because they are a sign that your pregnancy is progressing as it should. My doctor told me once that women who experience symptoms like nausea, are very unlikely to miscarry early in their pregnancies.

PRAYER AND INFERTILITY

Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.
Children born to a young man are like sharp arrows in a warrior’s hand
Psalm 127: 3 & 4

Throughout my struggles with infertility, I constantly prayed to God to take this hurdle out of my life and allow me to have the children I so desperately wanted. I know those of you currently struggling with infertility is praying this prayer as well and hoping that God , in his mercy, will answer you.

As the years passed and I realized that no answer to my prayers were forthcoming, II began feeling desperate, and wanted to at experience what it felt like to become pregnant, and so, I began saying to God, maybe your will for my husband and myself is not to become parents, this I have to work on accepting but in the meantime, could you just allow me to see what a positive pregnancy test looks like, to experience the symptoms of pregnancy, the nausea, the vomiting the bloating and lo and behold, he answered that prayer. I became pregnant with what was to later be a missed abortion and believe me, I felt all the symptoms and more. I remember asking him again that he allow me to wear maternity clothes that I so often pictured myself in and wanted to wear so badly, because I thought I would make a gorgeous pregnant woman (smile) and that I be allowed to experience the pampering and attention that pregnant women received and I so envied. Well, he answered that too and I became pregnant again and carried that pregnancy to seven months.

I remember telling this to a friend and her advice to me, was that I try praying for what I actually wanted, a child and probably God will grant me this at long last. Would he, I thought, I had been praying for so many years and none was forthcoming. Anyway I left that at that.
When I became pregnant with my son, I was not trying and was not praying for a child either, at least not as yet, because I was on treatment to resume trying again and also had just relocated. When I found out I was pregnant, I began praying in earnest for my unborn child, because I was not prepared to lose this child like the last one. I even told God that if he took this one, he should take me as well because I did not feel that I could go through another loss. Every morning, I would pray and rub my stomach with olive oil (a symbol used in Christianity along with prayers for healing and well-being) and I did this for the duration of my pregnancy. I was still, however, very anxious and frightened, not that I did not trust God, it was because of my previous losses.

I recently heard that some couples begin praying for their unborn child right before intercourse. I found that truly amazing as I had never thought of doing that, I prayed but it was usually after sexual intercourse, that God would not allow this opportunity to go to waste. I wonder if it would have made a difference if I had prayed before. My friend who brought this to my attention was so taken by this as well, she knows of people praying for their unborn child when they actually became pregnant, but not before.

One thing I believe is that these couples must have a special relationship with God and want him involved in all aspects of their plans to have a family, to actually think of doing this. Having done this also, their pregnancy should be anxiety and stress free as they already know that God has ordained it and will have them in his divine care and keeping until delivery. I don’t know about you, but this sounds pretty good to me.

This is truly commendable and I feel that every Christian should begin praying for their unborn child even before conception, as I believe the world would be a much better place with more children being born, who are shaped and molded in Christ even before conception.

Be blessed, therefore and until next time, keep clinging to hope.

My Infertility Story – Our triumph

As promised, here is the triumphant part of our story which I am so excited to tell.

Our triumph came, after more than a decade long of struggling with infertility, our triumph came and we were elated……..

We had just relocated from our home country and we were busy settling in to what would now be our new home. I was preoccupied with trying to secure a job and my husband was settling into his new job. There were no immediate plans to resume trying to get pregnant as yet, as we wanted to be settled into our new environment enough to take this next step and I was still allowing my body to recover from my last miscarriage. Our plans were not to be delayed for too long though as we were encouraged by one of our doctors to try to become pregnant by the end of that year, given my issue with age, and this was September. We were however oblivious to what was about to unfold that would change our lives forever.

I was expecting my period as usual that month and it had not shown up as yet. I did not take it for anything as I just thought I was experiencing anxiety with everything new that was happening to me. Days passed and still no period showed up and I started to feel a little nausea and some fatigue. I still thought I just had nervous stomach. The symptoms intensified and we decided to do a pregnancy test. There was no great hurry as we really were not expecting anything and was also not in any mood for any more disappointments. We did the test, quite timely I might add, and left it on the nightstand. As we re-entered the room to check the results, we realized that we could see the positive result from the door, (yes it was that bright, it’s like it was screaming at us, ‘you guys are pregnant, hip, hip hooray’).

We were dumbstruck at first as we were thinking, wow, this is certainly not the right time for us but were also elated because with our struggles, we did not want to give up on any opportunity to be excited about being pregnant, plus given our long struggle with infertility, we have no right saying this was not the right time, how dare us. We then began to get into pregnancy mode. I was scared at first not knowing any doctors or hospitals as yet and so I took the telephone directory and began to randomly call around to get information. It turns out no one wanted to give me any information, they wanted me to make an appointment and come in to see them and I did not want that, not just yet, I just wanted to check them out so that I can choose the best place for my prenatal care and the delivery of our child.

I remember getting so frustrated I called my friend back home and told her I was pregnant and think I might just come back home. Of course she gave me a dose of reality check and advised me against it. Fortunately, soon afterwards, we were recommended to a maternity centre and luck was on our side. We found a doctor and staff that made us feel so at home almost immediately. After that we knew without a doubt that this pregnancy was God’s doing and we had no choice but to embrace this great blessing as our timing surely by no means is His.

The pregnancy, from the time we saw the positive result, was packed with stress and anxiety because even though were feeling blessed and had accepted it as God’s doing, being human as I am, I could not shake the feeling that I would again suffer another miscarriage……

Join me in my next post as I relate how we made it through the longest and most stressful pregnancy ever