Finally!! Successful pregnancy!!!

Hi everyone:

It's been quite some time (again!) since I last posted.  Some of you may recall that I had had three miscarriages between August 2008 and August 2009.  Prior to the miscarriages, I did have three children: 2 when I was in my early twenties, and then my son when I was 37.  After my son, I experienced one miscarriage after the other.  My doctors (family doctor, OB, fertility doctor) could not find anything wrong.  As I was determined to figure out why all of a sudden I was not successful, I embarked on my own research and found this site.

First, after my last miscarriage, we waited a year before trying again.  I realized that 1) because of my thal minor, and 2) my age, I needed more time to regain my overall strength and replenish my system.  I had become pregnant the first time after my son when my son was 7 months old and then roughly every 3 months following a miscarriage.  It was always too soon to become pregnant!  My body was becoming weaker and weaker.  Of course, my doctors kept saying 'oh, just give it a couple of cycles before trying again'...and of course, no one was ever taking into consideration that I have beta thal even though through each of my successful pregnancies, my ob was always concerned with my low hemoglobin levels (go figure) to the point that he considered giving my a blood transfusion while I was pregnant with my son!  Yet, despite 3 miscarriages, no one said, hmmm maybe it might have something to do with her thal!

Anyway, after reading many of Andy's comments here (thank you Andy!!) I realized that I needed to boost my system considerably so during that year of waiting to get pregnant, I started high doses of folic acid - I took 5000 mcgs daily, 2000 mcgs of vitamin B12, a prenatal vitamin, and vitamin D (drops) and continued taking them throughout the pregnancy.  In addition, I underwent acupuncture treatments bi-weekly to boost my blood and I don't think it's a coincidence that we now have a beautiful and healthy baby girl who was born on August 27, 2011!!!

There is no doubt that we went through much heartache and disappointment that perhaps could have been avoided had I known before what I could do to help myself, but at least I found out and did something about it and now our family is complete.

There is hope to be had and I wish everyone the same success.

Elizabeth

I forgot to add that even though I took the supplements I named above, my hemoglobin still became low towards the end of the pregnancy so my OB had me start taking iron as well.  It did help as my hemoglobin climbed from 7.5 to 10.5.....E

Congrats. Hopefully things work out for me too..!! Thanks for sharing your experience.

Congratulations!!  Best wishes to you!!

Sharmin

Congratulations!!

As a Thal minor myself and who just had 2 miscarriages, can I ask do you feel taking 5000 mcgs folate acid and 2000 mcgs of vitamin B12 would be too much? I suppose I am wondering whether there would have any nagative impact from high dose B12 and folate acid. Thanks!

Hi MichelleTsang.......re: your question about the high folic acid and B12, I didn't have any concerns.

As a matter of fact, many doctors prescribe folic acid in such doses for women trying to get pregnant.  A friend of mine is taking it also at that level as prescribed by her MD.  However, you should know that my OB did say that there is some concern (not yet proven for certain though) that high doses of folic acid may contribute to faster growth rate of tumours.  Again, that is yet to be proven.  Given that I took the high doses for a limited time, I think this didn't raise an eyebrow with my OB as he did know that this is what I was doing.

As for the B12, I was told by my naturopathic doctor that this vitamin is the hardest for your body to absorb so that is why she told me to double the daily dose.

I can tell you that soon after (probably within a month) of starting both of these supplements at these rates, I felt significantly better than I had in a very long time!  I noticed an increase in energy and overall better well-being.  That is in part why I'm continuing to take them (lower doses now though) and will for the rest of my life.  Also, as a nursing mother now, breastfeeding takes a lot of iron from your system and for us thals we can't afford to lose any of that! 

Best of luck to you  

Hi again Michelle - I meant to say in my previous post that I am very, very sorry for your losses....I know how terrible the experience is.  I lost my pregnancies at 9 wks, 13 wks, and the last one at 15.5 wks.  I really began to lose hope that we'd have another baby.  But once I starting reading posts on this forum and realized that I could help myself, I once again had faith that my body would carry a baby to full-term and indeed it did!

Elizabeth,

After reading your posts, I want to congratulate you on the recent birth of your daughter! I hope that things are going well. Many many thanks for sharing all your experiences on this forum. I miscarried recently and through your posts, I am regaining slowly some hope.

All the best to you and your family. Happy New Year!