My journey with vasa previa began when I was approx 15 weeks pregnant. I had spotting right from word go at 6 weeks but an ultrasound showed everything was ok. Everything was smooth sailing until I had some more bleeding this time a little heavier at 15 weeks, once again I had another ultrasound but I got a phone call that afternoon from my doctor explaining the bad news.

I had never heard of vasa previa then and didn’t have the internet so I was feeling like I was left in the dark about it all. I knew it must have been bad because the hospital told me that I had to stay within a certain distance from there at all times and that a c-section would be performed when I was 38 weeks. I had an internal ultrasound every week to check on how the vasa previa was going and make sure all was good. At one stage I was told that my daughter was starving due to not enough nourishment getting to her from the placenta so then the ultrasounds were to also check on her size and the amount of fluid. A few weeks before my daughter was born an ultrasound picked up not just the one vein over the cervix like they originally thought but found two, this made me even more nervous about it all.

When I was 36 weeks I began to experience things like I did before my first child was born but the hospital reassured me that if I wasn’t contracting everything was ok. I went to bed as usual and was woken up by my son at 4am crying, I went in to see him and as I began to walk out of his room I felt a gush between my legs. I knew that I was in trouble either way weather it was my waters or blood and one look down confirmed it wasn’t my waters. A quick call to the hospital and to my parents was made and my husband made the mad dash to the hospital with towels between my legs. On the way I then realized I was contracting every 4 minutes but was not too worried because I could feel my daughter moving around in there the whole way. The birthing suite staff hooked me up to the monitors immediately and confirmed that my baby was ok and that I was definitely in labor. They prepped me while they waited for the doctor to arrive then I was rushed down to theatre. My daughter was born with no dramas and weighed a tiny 5 pound 5 ounces, she needed oxygen for a while after she was born and spent 2 and half weeks in the special care unit. Looking at her now you wouldn't know that we nearly lost her, she is a beautiful 3 year old little girl like any other.

~ Cherie Schramm