New technology for high-risk pregnancies

By SUSAN BRINKMANN
CS&T Correspondent

Women are delaying childbearing, which exposes them to risks younger women don’t face.
For Patricia Cahill, 43, of Our Lady of Calvary parish in Philadelphia, the trouble started as she approached 40. Already the mother of 12-year-old Mary Grace and 8-year-old John Paul, she wanted another child, but suffered repeated miscarriages.
Her first miscarriage occurred at six weeks, the second at 16 weeks. “With the second miscarriage, I had an unbelievable migraine for seven weeks without a break,” she said. “I was in and out of the emergency room. I thought I had a brain tumor or an abscess in my brain. I couldn’t open my eyes half the day I was so sick.” Suddenly, the headaches stopped. A few days later, she had a miscarriage.
Heartbroken, she accepted God’s will and went on with her life. She had many blessings to count. In addition to their own children, her husband, Patrick, had three children from a first marriage that ended when his wife died at 28 of cancer.
Not long after the second miscarriage, Pat found out she was pregnant again. This time, she felt great. Things were going well, except for one glitch.
“I had developed gallstones and they couldn’t do anything about it because I was pregnant, so I had to eat a low fat diet.” She ate sliced turkey breast quite often. One weekend, she had a bad bout with diarrhea and didn’t feel well, but she didn’t think much about it until she went for her regular checkup the following week and the doctor couldn’t find a heartbeat.
“They sent me for an ultrasound and the tech said, ‘The baby is dead.’ As a mother, you have this instinct that something’s wrong. So they called in another doctor who said, ‘You know what, Pat? I’m going to have to send you down for another ultrasound. All the blood just drained from me. I just knew that the baby had died.”
Her instincts were correct. “I kept praying, ‘Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place my trust in you.’ That carried me. I just knew God was going to carry me because it was really hard.”
They notified her husband who left work and arrived in time for the ultrasound. “I didn’t get to see the screen and thank God because my husband said it was the saddest thing he ever saw. He said the baby was just limp and leaning forward. It was a very hard thing. It was a little girl.”
There were several options, but Pat and her husband wanted to hold the baby at least one time. On Aug. 6, 2002, Bernadette Anne was delivered and placed in the arms of her mother. “The baby fit in my hand. It was the exact size of my hand,” Pat said.
Their little girl was transformed into an angel, they were sure, because she was born on Aug. 6, 2002, the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord.
Later, the doctors tested the placenta and the chord and said the baby had been dead for a week. The umbilical chord was severely bacterially diseased. The only cause her doctor could think of was the recent outbreak of listeria that had been found in turkey meat. Although it was never definitively ruled as the cause, the doctor said he was “almost positive” that’s what caused the baby’s death.
At 42 years of age, Pat came home from the hospital with empty arms. A tiny purple satin box contained all the evidence of the life of little Bernadette: the baby’s hand and foot print and the tiny clothes the hospital staff had dressed her in.
“My heart was broken over not being able to have a baby. I remember when we were in the hospital the doctor was trying to explain to me how, the older you get, the higher your chances are that you’ll have a baby with chromosomal defects like Down syndrome. I remember telling him that it’s all God’s plan and if it’s God’s plan that I have a Down syndrome baby, then that’s His will. He said, ‘I kind of thought you’d say something like that.’”
She knew what she had to do. “I’m so against anything unnatural, like IVF (in vitro fertilization). I don’t want to do anything that’s outside of God’s will. I prayed, ‘Only if You want us to conceive, Lord. I don’t want to step out of Your will because I know we’ll never have peace that way. We’ll never ultimately be happy outside Your will.”
God answered her courageous prayer by allowing her to see an ad in the Couple to Couple League newsletter for a new natural family planning method call the Creighton Model. This method included fertility care services and a new thing called Natural Procreative (NaPro®) Technology.
It’s not only a new natural family planning method, it’s also an outstanding system of monitoring a woman’s gynecological and reproductive health through the regular observance of changes in a woman’s body.
This technology can really see into the reproductive cycle and spot problems, especially for women in Pat’s category, who might be suffering infertility due to advancing age. Proper treatment can make a difference as to whether or not an older woman can conceive and bring a healthy child into the world.
Pat and her husband contacted a local practitioner, Barbara Rose, R.N., who taught them the new charting method. Within three months, Pat was pregnant again.
But this time, they had a complete picture of Pat’s reproductive cycle and could see what kinds of problems she was experiencing. Low progesterone levels were spotted right away and she was referred to a doctor who specializes in NaPro® technology, Dr. Leonie Watson of Mountainside, N.J., who put her on progesterone shots.
On Dec. 26, 2003, Pat and Patrick Cahill became the proud parents of a 9 lb. 11 oz. baby boy, James Michael.
“Part of the problem is that many physicians don’t respect life from conception,” Rose said. “Pat had the frustration of knowing that she had experienced this many miscarriages and the doctors just didn’t seem to do anything for her.”
She said this was typical. “Obstetricians just throw up their hands and say, ‘I can’t help you. You have to go to an infertility specialist.’ But Pat, being the holy woman that she is, knew that if she stepped into a fertility specialist’s office, they would be pushing immoral artificial reproductive technology. There was no other alternative for her until she learned about Creighton.”
Researchers in the science of NFP, including those at the Pope Paul VI Institute were the Creighton Model was created, have found that these new and technologically advaced methods far surpass those of hormonal contraception and fertility manipulation in effectiveness. Conditions such as irregular cycles, pre-menopause, menopause, and infertility can all be treated naturally, without any of the health risks associated with chemical treatment.
New methods of natural family planning are on the cutting edge of a whole new technology. Finally, women can take advantage of the advanced reproductive health care they deserve.

Contact Susan Brinkmann by e-mail: fiat723@aol.com