Early on I had some lower abdominal pain but my doctor said that it was just growing pains. I was getting big a lot faster than I did with my other two boys. We decided that we wanted to move back to have our son born in my husband’s hometown of Scottsbluff, Nebraska. So on February 28th we packed up our Ryder truck and left for our new home. On the way I had a little bit of spotting. I wasn’t too worried because we were moving and there wasn’t very much blood at all, just some spots when I wiped. I advised my new OB/GYN of this as soon as we got here. I was told it was okay and probably due to the stress of the move and to report if I had any more bleeding, which I never did.

     At 4 AM on April 16, 2004 my water broke naturally at home. I went to the hospital and they started monitoring me. My contractions were not hard enough to dilate my cervix so they started giving me pitocin. I was doing great…no meds, breathing through the contractions and thinking this would be a lot easier than before.

     I had been in labor for about 12 hours when the heart monitor for the Cody dipped. My nurse came in and thought that Cody had moved so she had me lie down on my side and got his heartbeat back on the monitor. Just as she started to walk out of the room Cody’s heartbeat dropped again. It was at this time that it was decided to put a monitor on Cody’s scalp to get a better heartbeat measurement. The nurses tried to get the monitor on but something seemed to be in the way. I was only dilated to 2 ½ centimeters. They called for the OB. Dr. Bussinger walked into the room within a few minutes of the nurses calling him. He then tried to place the monitor on Cody’s head. As they removed the monitor to start over, I felt a gush of fluid. It was blood. Dr. Bussinger immediately called for a stat C-section. I was put under a general anesthetic so that they could move as fast as possible. I don’t remember anything except the sight of the blood on the gurney and the people rushing about me in the OR. I woke up in a recovery room. I looked at the nurse and asked where the baby was. First they told me he was with his father. I then asked how he was? The nurse didn’t want to answer at first and I got really scared. I asked again and all she could say was “I’m sorry”. It was then that I knew my life would never be the same. I found out later that the reason the nurse didn’t tell me right away was because my husband wanted to be the one to tell me. My husband came into my room and they then brought Cody to me. I held my baby in my arms and cried.

     Dr. Bussinger came in a little bit later to tell me what had gone wrong. He said that it was vasa previa with velamentous insertion of the umbilical cord. He said he was sorry with tears in his eyes. He informed me that they had tried to save Cody, but he had never taken a breath outside of my body and he was born with no heartbeat. They tried to resuscitate but failed.

     I had never heard of vasa previa before that awful day and my doctor had only read about it, he had never actually seen it. I knew then that I had lost something that would never be replaced. Innocence. My new goal in life is to raise the awareness of women about vasa previa. In addition to this my life goal, other than being here when my family needs me, is to save as many babies as I can from this deadly condition. There is no reason for these deaths to continue. It must stop.
 

~ Teresa Spurgeon