Re: To Amy

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First, let me say that this is an EXTREMELY rare complication of pregnancy. Usually it's fatal to the mother, often fatal to the baby. I belong to a support group of AFE survivors on Yahoo. There are six of us, and I've seen emails on this site from a few others.

There are different theories about AFE. Somehow, amniotic fluid gets forced up into the mother's bloodstream where it can on rare occasions cause toxic reactions. One theory is that it acts like a pulmonary embolism, causes hypoxia, and some heart damage, and the mother and baby suffer from oxygen deprivation. Another theory is that it causes an anaphylactic shock reaction, like getting transfused with the wrong blood type, and causing all kinds of bad reactions in the body. They aren't sure why some women have such sensitivity to amniotic fluid, whether or not it's likely to recur, or how to prevent it. If a mother survives the initial incident, she can go into the DIC condition I wrote about earlier, which is the uncontrollable bleeding.

My treatment consisted of an emergency c-section to save my baby and get some of the stress off my systems, instant intubation followed by two days on a ventilator (THE WORST!), various intravenous medications to revive me, and LOTS AND LOTS of blood and blood products. Honestly, doctors are in the situation where they do all they can, and it's touch and go from there. I was in ICU for 3 days.

Meredith, thanks for what you wrote earlier. My entire point was that I'm a very AVERAGE person, with a very AVERAGE pregnancy, with excellent prenatal care, absolutely no complications. Am I biased on this topic? Yep, you bet I am. And I think that giving birth is inherently more dangerous than walking out my door. I think I read a statistic that said I had a better chance of getting hit by lightening than having an AFE. But thanks, Meredith, for saying what I was having trouble saying. I always new I like people named Meredith (it's my middle name!)

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Best wishes,
Amy

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