As I sit here in the waiting room waiting to rejoin my client who’s VBAC ended with a c-section, I am reminded how much of fertility, pregnancy, and childbirth is waiting.  As the saying goes “hurry up and wait”.  We wait for each time of ovulation  to hopefully get pregnant this cycle.  We wait for the next doctor appointment to see how we are doing and when we get there, we wait some more.  We wait those last few weeks when we feel like a house and are ready to meet our little one, we wait for birthing day.  Once labor pains begin, we wait on our bodies to tell us when to push.  Once our baby has been born, we wait to get the “all clear” to go back to our full schedules.  Perhaps all of this waiting is preparing us for the immense amount of love, patience, and nuturing we need to care for a child.  We mothers must be good at waiting right?  Maybe for some of us, it’s in our DNA.  I know for some (myself included), waiting can be as challenging as those labor pains.  I think a perfect balance of hurry up waiting and savoring the moment is within our reach.  Savor the moments that make us feel alive,  those moments our children steal our hearts yet again (yes, you know those moments, when you feel you could burst because of the love for them).  There are so many lessons our children are waiting to teach us, we just need to slow down and notice.  You can hurry up and wait when they are teenagers and you find yourself on the couch because curfew is soon approaching.  While they are small and even not yet born, savor the moments.  I know it’s a trite phrase, but it is so true “they grow up so fast”.  Even if you don’t have the pleasure of being surrounded by children, stop and remember the amazingness children bring to our lives, the lessons they teach, the love they so freely give, the laughter that is never far from their tongue, and their awesome curiosity.  If a child is near you, hug them and let them know how much they are loved.

One of the silly games I play with my kids……

“Why do I love you?” I ask

“Because I’m __________ (fill in the name).” they answer

You have 3 kids and feel one is missing. You and your partner try for awhile to have that fourth baby only to discover it won’t happen without medical intervention. You go through the agonizing and expensive process of IVF. Recently riding the roller coaster of implantation, you eagerly await “that” call. The phone rings and the doctor says “CONGRAGULATIONS!”. You are beyond yourself with excitment….”oh, yea” they add, “we made a mistake and you have been implanted with the wrong embryo.”

That is exactly what happened to Sean and Carolyn Savage. Now, they are faced with a choice. Do they continue the pregnancy knowing in the end they will have to give the baby to the other couple? Or, do they terminate the pregnancy? They say termination was never an option. Perhaps the most heartbreaking part of the story, Carolyn will not be able to be pregnant again because of health issues, although they do hope to use a surrogate for the remaining embryos.

Here is the interview with the couple, Shannon and Paul Morell who will be adding a new little son soon. Hopefully they will be able to fully connect with the baby since they haven’t had the chance during pregnancy.

It never ceases to amaze me where medicine takes us.  This is a video clip from The Today Show.  Matt Lauer interviews a couple who had a baby and is pregnant again.  What is amazing about this?  Annie had one her ovaries frozen before under going chemotherapy.  After she was in remission, the ovary was grafted back on.  It is only the second time a baby was born after an ovary was frozen.  There are less than 10 babies born in this way so far!

Every year the CDC releases the National Vital Statistics Report the end of last year.  It is quite astonishing!  There was a 3% increase in births from 2005 to 2006, the highest growth since 1989.  There were 4,265,996 births in 2006 which is the highest number since 1961!  Teenage pregnancy started to rise in 2006 for the first time since 1991.  The total fertility rate was 2,101births per 1,000 women which is the highest rate since 1971.  The birth rate rose by 7% for unmarried women which equaled 50.6 births per 1,000 women.

WOW!  We are having babies!  The one that surprised me the most was the unmarried women.  Half of the women giving birth are unmarried.  i wonder how many account for women choosing to have children without a partner and how many were like my first (very unexpected blessings).

What are your thoughts on these numbers and what they mean?