What you need to know about an Incompetant Cervix

As many of you may not know the reason that I went in to preterm labor was due to a condition called an incompetant cervix. Before all this happened I had never even heard of an incompetant cervix, so I had no idea what in the world it was. Basically IC is when the bag of water begins to funnel down into the cervix, which puts pressure on the cervix and therefore the cervix begins to dialate, and shorten typically with no pain at all. Most women are not diagnosed with IC until they have lost a baby or unfortunately multiple babies. Some women are lucky and IC is caught before they dialate to much and their pregnancy is saved, unfortunately this was not the case for us. After countless hours of research, and trying to figure out why this happened to me, since I had a normal pregnancy with my son Aiden, I have discovered there is no one reason this happens and most of the reason don't even apply to me. This is very frustrating to me, because I just want an answer to my question, Why Me? One lesson I did learn from this experience, listen to your body, if you think something is wrong find someone who is willing to help and don't take no for an answer. For me, I began to have a heavy amount of discharge, sorry this might be too much information, but it is important to know. I called the OB on call and was told that this was completely normal and not to worry about it. I have come to find out that this was probably a sign that my cervix was thinning out and would have been the perfect time to put in a cerclage, which could have potentially saved my daughter. This is and will always be gut wrenching to hear, knowing that something could have been done to save my baby. It is something I will never know for sure, but something I will forever wonder about. This is where a lot of my guilt towards myself comes from, I feel that I should have known that something was wrong and I should have insisted that the Dr. check me on that Saturday when I called, because I knew something wasn't right. I made the mistake of listening to the Dr. and trusting that she knew what she was talking about and thinking that I was just being paranoid. I will forever regret my decision and I hope that at some point I will forgive myself for this mistake and that my baby girl will forgive me to. As hard as it is for me to relive all this I hope I can help someone. Whether or not it is one of my friends that reads this blog or maybe it will be someone I don't even know, but if I can help one person then my experience wasn't for nothing. I feel that something good has to come out of something so bad. So share this story with any women you know that is early in pregnancy or thinking about getting pregnant and make sure to talk with your Dr. about IC and have them check you at 20 weeks, which isn't typically done. I don't want anyone else to lose a baby.