When I found out I was pregnant with Ivy it was completely unexpected and unplanned. I was not ready to be pregnant as I was still recovering emotionally and mentally from my caesarean with Hazel. Eventually I did wrap my head around the fact that we were adding to our family. I even started to look forward to possibly having the natural birth that I wanted to have with Hazel.
Shortly after this perspective change I found out that I was alloimmunized. What this meant was that Hazel’s blood had mixed with mine during our caesarean and caused my blood to develop Fya antibodies against the Fya antigens in her blood. This meant that if Ivy had the same blood type as Hazel did then my blood would attack her blood inevitably. This also meant that I could not safely have the natural birth that I wanted. It felt like my mental state of not wanting this baby was manifesting as a physical state as well.
So I reached out to Joanne hoping that Body talk would be able to help us as it had in the past. I felt it was important to have in person sessions in this situation. My first session was very fulfilling and enlightening though I remember more of the emotions that I experienced than the words and subjects that Joanne spoke of. Every subsequent session brought light to things that I was unconscious of that needed healing. When Joanne’s attention fell on Ivy, she would respond every time by becoming more active than normal (she was a very active baby to begin with)- it was like she knew that she was helping her. I always felt rejuvenated and more connected to both Ivy and my body after a body talk session. As my pregnancy progressed I felt better and more excited about meeting the new little being growing inside me. This pregnancy was actually becoming enjoyable and exciting!
Body talk also helped me to accept the curveballs the alloimmunization kept throwing my way. Before my diagnosis I was planning on keeping ultrasounds to a minimum- 2 tops. We ended up having around 15 ultrasounds. I’m fairly certain that body talk helped us to avoid an intrauterine blood transfusion when one of Ivy’s ultrasounds showed possible anemia. After a body talk session, the ensuing ultrasound thankfully showed better results. I ended up having to be induced at 36 weeks just to be safe. For most alloimmunized pregnancies it was recommended not to go past 36 weeks as the scans that were used to detect anemia were much less accurate after 34 weeks. I pushed to have Ivy remain in my cozy womb for as long as they felt it was still safe.
The scans were quite erratic around 34 weeks so I thought it best to accept their recommendation of induction at 36 weeks. We had to get a couple of steroid shots that would accelerate Ivy’s lung-development then I went in for induction at 35+5.
Thanks to one last Body talk session a couple days before my appointment I was in a very good place going into my induction. It took two days but eventually I went into labour and delivered a mostly healthy premature but 7 pound baby. Ivy needed some help breathing, she was very jaundiced (another effect of the alloimmunization) and she did have a partial blood transfusion at 1 day old. All in all she only spent 6 days in the Nicu. I also had a successful VBAC which was something I really wanted but wasn’t expecting to actually happen as it was so early and the induction was so unnatural.
I’m thankful for Joanne and Body talk for giving this potentially very complicated and scary pregnancy an incredibly happy ending. Ivy is an absolute blessing.
— Emily Morosini, Saskatoon, Canada