She admitted me to the hospital and the high risk doctor also saw the tear but said that it was small and that if I lost that part of the placenta the pregnancy would continue fine. I stayed in the hospital for 5 days.  The bleeding had stopped so I was released from the hospital on bed rest for a couple of weeks with a doctor's appointment to follow up on the situation.  I made it at home for about 12 hours when I started bleeding quite heavily and ended up back at the hospital. They did another ultrasound and said that the baby was fine.  The doctors said that I had probably passed the blood clot and that was why there was a lot of blood at first and then a slow trickle. I was also having contractions so they put me on an anti-contraction medicine called procardia.  The doctor told me that I would be in the hospital for at least a couple of weeks and that the next week they would do another ultrasound to see how everything is going.

     Dr. Stewart, the perinatologist, did another ultrasound a few weeks later and told us that I had a bi-lobed placenta and the two pieces were connected by fetal blood vessels that were crossing my cervix.   He said that I had Vasa Previa and that the condition is very rare (1:3000).  Tim and I researched Vasa Previa and  realized that it has up to a 95% infant mortality rate if it is not diagnosed prenatally because those fetal blood vessels can rupture during labor and the baby can bleed out in a matter of minutes.  We were very worried about the diagnosis and definitely agreed with the doctors when they told me that I was going to stay in the hospital for the rest of the pregnancy because of the bleeding episodes and the contractions that I was having. 

     For 12 weeks, the doctors kept me on several anti-contraction medicines, told me to eat as many calories that I could to get Jack’s weight up, and did ultrasounds every week to monitor the situation.   There were several days that I also had to get shots to stop the contractions and was sent back to Labor and Delivery twice when the shots did not work.    At 32 weeks the doctors could not stop my contractions and they decided that the risks were starting to outweigh the benefits that Jack would receive from staying in utero. 

     Dr. Stewart was there again to help deliver Jack.  Before the delivery, Tim and I asked Dr. Stewart about what he had thought during our first meeting in regards to how far we were going to get before Jack was born.  He told us that he thought we would have delivered sometime in October (24-27 weeks)!  Even though we were nervous about delivering at 32 weeks,  for the first time we also realized how lucky we were to have made it this far.

     Jack was born via c-section on December 3^rd, 2005 at 10:59 am and weighed 4 lbs 11 oz.  I got to say a quick hello before the NICU team took him away.  We named our beautiful son John Patrick Stewart Edwards (Jack).  We added the name Stewart to honor Dr. Stewart who saved Jack’s life with his diagnosis of Vasa Previa.  I was fortunate to have Dr. Dannenbaum and Dr. Larson along with a great team of nurses who took the condition very seriously and gave me wonderful care during my 12 week hospital stay.  We are also very thankful for all the help we received from our family and friends during this time.   

     Jack spent 11 weeks in the NICU but finally got to come home on February 20, 2006 and meet his big brother, Sam.  Today Jack is 8 months old, learning to crawl, and loves trying to play with his big brother.  He continues to have some medical problems but we feel extremely blessed to have our beautiful baby boy.   We will never forget how different it could have turned out for us and every day we think of those who have lost their perfect little babies because of Vasa Previa.