Photo by Dan Dalstra
Long road ahead
Matt Way wheels his wife, Tara, to their car outside the couple’s Sweeny home. Though the Ways have a long road in front of them, with the help of family, friends and a strong belief in God, the family is confident both mom and baby will make a full recovery.
Early prenatal care can detect potential problems
From the time they see two lines on the stick to the time they cradle their newborns, expectant moms are asked to give more blood and urine samples than seems reasonable.
At least those who receive proper prenatal care are.
A too-high number of women are not subject to such prodding, many times because they don’t know they are pregnant until well into the course of their pregnancy.
The Alan Guttmacher Institute, which researches reproductive health, reports 16 percent of U.S. women receive inadequate prenatal care. That means about 1.3 million women a year don’t start prenatal care until the fifth month of their pregnancy or later or show up for less than half the number of doctor appointments recommended by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
While there is not much that can be done to encourage those women who don’t know they are pregnant to seek prenatal care earlier, many of those women know they are pregnant but disregard the recommendations.
Tara Way fell into the first category. By the time she knew she was pregnant, she already was almost five months along. Whether better prenatal care could have headed off her preeclampsia, stroke and full-blown eclampsia, we can’t say.
A simple test can detect protein in a woman’s urine that, along with high blood pressure, signals preeclampsia. Once diagnosed, doctors can take extra precautions like bed rest, blood pressure-lowering medications or even hospitalization.
In Way’s case, there was no indication of a problem until she dropped to the floor with a stroke May 29 while at work in Angleton. After two brain surgeries, an emergency Cesarean section and the delivery of a baby at about only 26 weeks gestation, she is on the road to recovery.
Way is learning to move her right side again, paralyzed in the stroke. She’s working on word recall and goes through daily speech and physical therapy. She can link five or so words in a row now, and she stood for the first time at her baby Myla’s incubator a few weeks ago.
Myla is closing in on 3 pounds, and she could be released from the hospital as soon as August, when doctors estimated she was due to be born.
All indications at this point are Tara and Myla both will be fine, but their remarkable recovery is not the rule.
Up to 24 percent of women who endure pregnancy-induced stroke die, doctors say. Half are left with neurological deficiencies like loss of speech, memory loss and paralysis. Most times patients get better but still suffer some residual effect from the stroke. And that’s to say nothing of complications of preterm delivery for the baby.
The Way family’s story, chronicled in a five-day Facts series that ended Thursday, should inspire us. Their faith, their hope and the love of a close-knit family have helped them defy odds.
Their story also should serve as a cautionary one, though.
Even the full gauntlet of tests won’t pick up on every potential problem, and some complications don’t have easy remedies. But many can be found through tests and by an expectant mother simply paying attention to her body and asking questions in the doctor’s office.
The consequences of pregnancy complications are dire enough to justify as many needle sticks and collection cups as the doctor deems necessary.
This editorial was written by Yvonne Mintz, managing editor of The Facts.
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