I'm Pro-Life, Part 1 (what led me to my passion for women's health)

Before I explain how I can be for women's rights AND pro-life I will explain what got me passionate about women's health in the first place:

After my C-section in 2006 I became obsessed with having a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesearean). I knew my body could birth the "normal" way--or hoped it could--and went on a research mission to learn all I could about how to have a normal birth and prove, once and for all, that my body was not broken. The things I learned made me very, very, very angry. I had been pressured into inducing my labor starting at 35 weeks. Probably due to fear from my OBGYN that I was too small (I'm 4'11) and that my husband was too big (6ft-300lbs) for our little sprout to make her way through my pelvis.

I repeatedly told my OB that I did NOT want to induce and was even pressured by another OB to do so because they believed m shortness combined with my slightly higher-than-average blood glucose would make the baby too large for me. At 35 weeks I had started dilating and went through weeks of promodal labor. It was physically hard and I was stressed out at my job. I went on maternity leave at 37 weeks pregnant because I would have had to do work at a high-stress hurricane conference even that would have required lots of driving and walking on my part. Shortly, there after, my husband was hospitalized for severe vomitting and diahrrea of unknown cause. After he got after the hospital I started to feel the clock ticking- every week I went without giving birth was 1 week less with my baby and I only had 4 weeks of paid maternity leave and then my husband (who became unemployed shortly before his hospitalization) and I would be without income. 

So at 38w, 5d when I went into the hospital thinking my water broke (it hadn't, it was my mucous plug falling out again for the 3rd time) my OB convinced me to be induced. I was on a time-clock and was worried I'd run out of $. Well, turns out my daughter was in posterior position and by inducing labor and AROM (artificial rupture of membranes=breaking the water) she got JAMMED into my pelvis and had no opportunity to turn. In the posterior position she got...stuck. And after 1 1/2 hours of pushing (of which I could not feel due to the epidural and was doing inefficiently) we decided on a C-section.

Fifteen months after the birth when I got pregnant again I fought for a VBAC. And I did have one with my son, same size as my daughter and all. But this time I was not induced (labor started on it's own at 39w,5d) and had the epidural turned off when I reached 9cm so I could feel myself push. My son's head was in optimal position and he came out after 1 1/2 hours of pushing. It was a victory, except for some complications. With that pregnancy I had had placental previa/placental abruption with bleeding between 26-31 weeks (when ultrasound showed it was resolved); the only risk factor was having a prior C-section. I was hospitalized for 8 days total and on bed rest for several weeks. Upon my son's birth it was discovered that when the placenta partially separated from the uterine wall and an infection had crept in which caused a condition known as chorioaminionitis. I had a high fever/tachycardia for the first 24 hrs after my birth and so did my son. I was treated with antibiotics for 24 hrs, he was treated with them for 1 week. During the birth his heart rate shot up over 200 bpm. While I felt victorious for my successful VBAC I also felt upset and angry that I was separated from my son for 1 week when both of these conditions wouldn't have happened had I not originally had the C-section. My separation from my son caused me depression and trouble breastfeeding.

I thought that having my VBAC would quench the fire, passion, and interest in all things pregnancy and maternity, however, it DID NOT. And I am more interested in ever. Not only in maternity, but in women's health in general. I ask all my female friends about their female-related medical conditions such as endometriosis, PCOS, infertility, PMS, low-progesterone, ovarian cysts, fibroids, menopause, and more. I want to know about all their birth stories. I'm obsessed.  

That is my passion. However I've come across something that is puzzling and troubling to me. See, I'm pro-life, but the majority of women who share this passion that I do are pro-choice. In Part 2 I will discuss why I am pro-life, why they are pro-choice and how I'm trying to wrap my mind around what this means for women.