Rawwwrrr….. *vent

SO… I’m exploring this blog thing.  I figured I should make some friends, find a kindred spirit or two, subscribe to some blogs that I can relate to.  I typed “Incompetent Cervix” (a subject that occupies a large part of my brain) into the search box on WordPress.com.  The first result I came across was a pretty short post written by someone who is, at best, insensitive to the epidemic of premature birth.   This lady was reading  a front page story about a mother who delivered a month early due to IC.  Maybe I’m ultra-sensitive right now, but it really hurt to read what she had written:

I’m sure it’s a serious and scary condition, but the term “incompetent cervix” is just inherently amusing. As Eric pointed out, it sounds like the kind of cervix you’d demote to a part-time position in the mailroom.

I can understand being uninformed – I was uninformed when I went into labor with Jacob at 24 weeks.  I never heard the term “Incompetent Cervix” until I was a high risk L&D patient, suffering from steady contractions for 4 days, fighting Nature herself to keep my baby inside my body.  Besides, it was a front. page. article.  She read it.  I’m sure there was plenty of information about the risks and losses associated with IC – not to mention the mother’s personal story and how she probably struggled to hang on to her pregnancy.  The author of the blog wasn’t misinformed by the time she wrote her entry. I don’t like the name either – after what we’ve been through, believe me:  I HATE it.  AND I’m all about free speech, blah, blah, blah… But to be so obtuse as to dedicate a whole blog entry to how funny you think the name of someone else’s serious condition (that you’ve never heard of before) sounds… And then hit “publish”?  C’mon, lady.  Go write dead baby jokes for South Park.  Stupid people make me so mad.

So, maybe I shouldn’t have left a shitty comment – and maybe I shouldn’t repost it here, but damnit, I feel like exercising my First Amendment rights on this Independence Day weekend.  Here’s me flying off the handle:

Inherently amusing?  Try devastating.  More and more babies are being born too early these days – last year 1 in 10 were born before 37 weeks (full term).  Many of these premature births are due to Incompetent Cervix – also know as Insufficient Cervix. The mother that you read about is very, very lucky that she delivered her baby only a month early – that baby is a miracle.  Most are not so fortunate.  IC usually occurs in the 2nd trimester or early in the 3rd trimester.  This is when the fetus is still forming major organs like their lungs.  When they are born too soon they die.  HILARIOUS!  The most insidious thing about IC is that you don’t know you have it until you lose at least one pregnancy.  I was terrified when I went into labor with my first pregnancy at 24 weeks.  That is the point of viability, but my baby still faced tremendous challenges.  He fought for his sweet little life 10 days in the NICU before he passed away.  His name was Jacob and he was beautiful.  I became pregnant again in January of this year.  Although my husband, myself and a team of experienced high risk OB MDs did everything we could, including surgery, bedrest and weekly progesterone injections, my water broke at 21 weeks.  We had to induce labor and my son Isaac was stillborn.  There are no words to describe the pain that these losses have caused me & my husband.  What did I do to deserve this?  What did my babies do?  Why did they have to die?  I struggle everyday with these questions while you read your paper and are “amused.”

So…  I set out to make a few friends &  the first thing I do is to pick a fight with a fellow unknown blogger.  Oops.  I asked my husband if he thought I was being excessively bitchy and he said that if what I read was in the public domain and if it offended me and if it were open to comments then I should go for it.  I can always count on him for moral support.  Was I out of line?  Tonight I don’t care.