At 16 weeks, I started an awesome new job that has fantastic benefits…that take effect December 1st. My OB group has been so wonderful throughout my pregnancy. Every doctor I’ve seen, nurse who’s guided me, even the front desk has been patient and helpful. As soon as I found out that my new benefits would take so long to kick in, I let everyone know, and was told again and again there would be no problem… until the billing department called and told me they wouldn’t be seeing me as a patient anymore since I would have a gap in coverage. To spare the long winded details of a week long back and forth of phone tag, arguments, a letter of concern I had to send to the medical advisor (for the disgusting treatment and words from a Karen in billing), and ultimate runaround of useless direction from many mouths, I’ve ended here—

I will not be seeing any doctors after my out of pocket anatomy scan next week until December 1st, when I can then book an appointment with the same OB group I’d been seeing.

I’ve assessed all of my options after speaking to every professional possible; Kobra will run me about $3k (that I don’t have) at best, I don’t qualify for Medicaid or state programs, the clinics near me are booked or refusing care as there’s no pertinent testing to be done between the last week of October and December 1st, and it’s looking like I will just have to remain without care until I have my coverage.

The group that I’ve seen for more of my pregnancy is the ONLY OB group that I was able to get in with since I recently moved states.. seriously, I’d called 9 different places taking new patients (any within 30 miles), and only got this hook up from a referral I begged for from a nurse friends doctor. I take my blood pressure daily, I monitor my fetal movements, I’m taking my prenatals and good care of myself..

My main concern is assessing results from my anatomy scan. I have google, I have friends in the medical field (who are trying hard to assist), but I’m a first time momma who’s suffered loss before. I’m a positive person and I feel resilient, but I’m still… nervous. I want decent care and a healthy baby. Health care in this country is fucking sinful and greedy and boils my blood.. and.. I have support and can advocate for myself, not to mention the layers of privilege (friends in the field, benefits to soon come, a stable job, loving partner and I’m a white English native).. Im in a constant loop of anger, self pity, and then self resentment because I know how many women are in worse circumstances in this shitty system.

Sorry to be all over the place in this. I’m just looking for words from other women- whatever they are.

I conceived through a medicated IUI cycle, so we know the exact conception date and the due date based off of that. My OB has my due date calculated using LMP. It’s only 2 days different and it wouldn’t make any difference at all, except that I’ve decided that I want to opt for an elective induction at 39 weeks. The problem is that 39 weeks (according to my LMP) is a major holiday, which means no elective inductions that day, that weekend and into the beginning of the next week at my hospital. So I’ll really be having a 40 week elective induction. Would it be crazy to ask my OB to change my due date to align with my IUI, two days earlier? It’s been grating on me the tiniest amount for months, even though I know it’s just because they’re trying to standardize care for everyone. If it really only meant waiting 2 more days I wouldn’t care at all. The entire reason for choosing an elective induction is to give myself as much recovery time as possible before family comes for Christmas (and also the SPD and insomnia and irritable uterus which is making my life a living hell), so having that extra week makes a huge difference.

All that being said, it feels so petty and silly to bring this up! I’m legitimately worried my provider is going to laugh in my face and say no. I completely understand the importance of not kicking the baby out too early and worry that the doctor will see it as an elective induction at 38+5 which ofc they would never agree to. They wouldn’t let me get a membrane sweep before the holiday (39+0) either. Finally, I know elective inductions get bumped all the time and if that’s what happens so be it. It’s just about having THE CHANCE to be done a week sooner.

I’m sure I’m way overthinking it but would love some advice if you have wisdom to share or have been in a similar situation.

My baby is 7 weeks old tomorrow and we have our first hospital visit for an ultrasound to see if he might have pyloric stenosis. He hasn’t been gaining much weight for 3 weeks now and would have spit up after every feed with formula, be overly demanding to breastfeed, and would be fussy to the point of crying fits.
It’s rough couple of days and I thought we were starting to turn a corner with the late nights 😞 I’m just hoping that we figure out what’s going on so we know where to go next.

My son was born last week at 37 weeks due to severe gestational hypertension. He spent the first week of his life in the NICU on a ventilator then a cpap and while it was the scariest week of my life, I have both of my beautiful rainbow babies under one roof now and we are adjusting to life as a family of four.

Since being pregnant, my left outer thigh has had numbness or a burning sensation. It doesn't happen all the time, but pretty consistently. I messaged my OB about it and she said it probably isn't pregnancy related, but I don't know if I believe her because it's never happened before being pregnant. Just wanted to see if this happens to anyone else.

Hey guys! So, I’m new here and it is going to be mostly me venting about an exeperience I’m having.
Just for context, I am the mother of a 19-month-old girl, whom I raise together with my husband. We don’t have—and have never had—any outside help with our baby. I am a stay-at-home mom, and my husband works outside the home. His job offers some flexibility, but I handle the majority of the childcare. Our family life isn’t exactly a bed of roses; I experienced postpartum depression and felt completely lost during those first few months. Sometimes I lose my patience with my poor little girl, and I often feel lost—it’s certainly not all perfect. But the thing is, I absolutely love every bit of it. When I talk to friends or observe the general tone of conversations about motherhood online, I can’t understand why people speak so negatively about being a mother. I don’t think my situation is particularly easy or difficult; I feel like a fairly typical mom with a very typical little girl. Yet, I truly don’t grasp this entirely negative discourse surrounding mothers and motherhood. Could it be a "left-wing" thing? I don’t mean to get too political, but most of my friends happen to be on the political left—could that be it? I don’t know. Do any other mothers share this experience? I’d love to hear your thoughts—does anyone else get the impression that the negative narrative about motherhood is completely at odds with the reality, which is, frankly, magnificent? I honestly can’t imagine anything better than being my little girl’s mom—and mind you, I never imagined I’d ever stop working to take care of my family! Can anyone relate? Thank you for your time! I hope you’re all doing well! 🤍

Trying to decide between a travel system or buying an all-in-one car seat and separate stroller.

Travel system:

Pros- convenience of moving car seat easily into stroller, can be used through toddler years

Cons- only works for infant car seat, will need to buy additional car seats as baby grows

Car seat & stroller:

Pros- one car seat for all growth stages, could get a more lightweight or double stroller option (thinking of future siblings)

Cons- lacks convenience of travel system, stroller is a larger piece of gear to haul around

Is the travel system convenience worth the hassle and cost of having to upgrade car seats eventually? We are looking at spending no more than $400-500 regardless of what route we choose, so looking at budget friendly brands like Graco.

Hi queens. In the absolute trenches of first trimester nausea. Watching TV or being on my phone gives me nausea, pretty much anything with screens, including my Kindle.

I’m only 8 weeks. Does anyone have activity recommendations (besides sleeping) to pass the time over the next few weeks that might not induce queasiness for me? Needs to be a couch/lazy girl activity. TIA!

I am at the end of my list of safe foods. EVERYTHING sounds disgusting but I’m always starving!!! What do I eat?! I’m at 11 weeks, when does this end?!!?

I didn’t really bought any maternity clothing as I didn’t have a big bump. I recently bought some stretchable trousers. But the thing is, all my trousers now are either too tight or too loose. When it finally fits it’s too long because I’m buying a bigger size.

I didn’t like having trousers over my belly as it didn’t feel comfortable.

In the summer I just wear summer dresses but what do people wear in the winter? Thank you!!!!!

I’m 16 weeks pregnant. The housekeeper washed our glass, ceramic, and stainless steel dishes with diluted Clorox mixed with dish soap to remove fish smells. I’m not sure of the exact amount, but it was diluted in water. She rinsed the dishes with water only, and they had no bleach smell afterward. I then ran them through the dishwasher as a precaution.
Should I be concerned about chemical residue on the dishes, especially during pregnancy?

Hi there! My husband (30M) and I (29F) just started TTC back in August. Coming up on month #3, I'm seeking some advice on how you timed sex during your fertile window when it actually worked.

I don't have many friends who have had babies of their own to ask, so I figured this community would be a good place to source a variety of experiences. My OBGYN gave the classic guidance of every day to every other day (though no more than once every 24 hours). My therapist told me an interesting anecdote that when she was TTC, it worked on her fifth cycle when she only had sex the day of ovulation, not at all before.

I'd love to know what "finally" worked for you or if you did anything different after trying for multiple cycles. My working theory is that we move to strictly every other day instead of trying to hit every 24-36 hours.

I will also say that everything seems healthy for both of us, though my husband is on SSRIs. He did an at-home sperm test earlier in the summer, and everything was copacetic. Thank you so much in advance!

okay i just need to get this out. ftm, not sure if this is par for the course. i just am so peeved.

i went in for my anatomy scan on monday, and sat in the waiting room for about 30 minutes. the receptionist came over around then and explained that the tech never came in for her shift. they rescheduled me for a few hours later, saying that if the tech isn't in by then, one of the doctors will do my ultrasound, but i will be seen that day. totally understandable, this kind of thing happens.

we go out to breakfast, and get a call that they need to reschedule me for the 29th. i would be 22weeks 5 days at that point. seems way too late, especially if we find a problem. my husband takes over (bless that man), and we still got seen on monday. it was the only day we could do it, and he had taken off from work to be able to go.

guys, this doctor hadn't done an anatomy scan in years. he fumbled with the software, took the full appointment time to get all the shots he did, barely had me adjust my position to get better angles, gave me super blurry print outs, and worst of all, never asked if i wanted the gender or even went looking for it! his pressure was horrible as well. i only know because i went in this morning and the tech was so much better. she knew what she was doing! super great bedside manner. i got a profile shot to show family and friends, i didn't feel like i was being squished, and she was taking shots so much faster. i know i pressured them to see me that day, but they shouldn't have offered for the doc to do it if he couldn't! idk just felt very icky.

after all that, my 20 minute appointment this morning could only get 3 of the 4 shots we were missing from the initial ultrasound (even she said this was way too short of a followup). i got scheduled again for next friday so we could get a better picture of the heart. my baby girl wasn't cooperating today, so i get it, but still. i'm just hoping it won't cost me triple just to finish it, but it probably will.

we are switching to a different obgyn anyway, because after this experience i looked at reviews (i know, i know), and they super do not align with my values. turns out they are super anti-choice and gave someone a horrible labor and delivery, talking down to her and saying bad things about her as he stitched her up.

is this normal?

I'm a FTM who has never been 38 weeks pregnant before and there are all sorts of new weird sensations and pains and other things happening that are making me really really scared and stressed. I have called the on-call doctor a few times because I didn't know if I was having contractions (this was across multiple days and I spoke to 2 doctors. Eventually I went in to the hospital and they confirmed I was having regular contractions but wasn't in labor), didn't know if my water broke (it didn't), and had a low-grade fever and headache (it was fine).

When I was a kid I had a lot of stomach aches and at some point people stopped believing me. I think it was probably psychosomatic and stress induced but that doesn't mean it wasn't real. Anyway I know I have this huge complex about asking for medical help and being believed, but I'm getting really scared that they have this file on me being a person who calls in a lot and that if something *is* wrong or when I actually go into labor and need to advocate for myself, the doctor won't listen to me, because they'll have this record.

Any thoughts or reassurance would be hugely appreciated.

I’m a little over 7 weeks pregnant and have gotten conflicting information from my obgyn office on what I can or can’t take for diarrhea.

First I was told I can take pepto I go to the internet it’s like absolutely under no circumstances

So I call the nurse hotline and she says I can take Imodium but not pepto. I took one serving of the liquid Imodium and now I’m freaking out because the internet says it’s also bad. I’ve just had diarrhea for almost 3 days now and can’t seem to get it to stop even tho I’ve moved to a BRAT diet. Did I harm my pregnancy!? This stinks it’s so stressful any tips or advice is so welcome - thank you.

I wish I was exaggerating, but I'm really not. It's just me (32) and my husband (38). Both of my parents have passed away and I've estranged myself from all my extended family (due to very valid reasons) with the exception of my aunt & cousin who live 800 miles away. My husband's mother married a convicted child-rapist (and hid/lied about it) so we've estranged ourselves from his entire family since then. We moved 600 miles away from home 5 years ago and have lost pretty much all of our friends.

We both have jobs that we mingle with our co-workers, but that's about it. I am also the only female at my job so not a ton to relate on.

I'm 10 weeks pregnant and I am overwhelmed with how much emphasis is being put on my loneliness. I have only the internet to turn to and that's terrifying. We haven't shared the news but it just brings me sadness to think about sharing the news, because I don't think there's anyone in our life that really cares? I don't even know if there's anyone to announce anything to except work, for work-related reasons.

It's making me really miss my parents BAD. They were amazing and taken too soon. If I could just have them back, I'd feel no loneliness at all! I find myself getting sad about no baby shower, but I know I'd be so happy even if it were just my mom and I going to brunch or something. No one to reveal the gender to. No one is going to be waiting to meet the baby. My one aunt is going through so much herself right now, I don't want to add anything more to her plate.

I'm so sad for this future baby to come into the world and not be "surrounded" by massive amounts of love.

The good news is I've got one hell of a partner to help navigate this, but even that feels very hopeless right now :(

Has anyone gone through pregnancy alone and made it out alive? Anything you'd do differently? I feel like "building a community" is out of the question at this point, especially when we we're planning to move out of the state within the next year (this was planned before pregnancy ever happened lol)

Has anyone travelled to Cape Verde at 10-11 weeks?

I've been looking through multiple subreddits hoping to find a similar experience to mine, but I've only found other moms who have already had a labral tear before getting pregnant and have had surgery to repair it.

I just can't seem to find experiences of tearing a labrum during pregnancy. It seems like such an uncommon thing to happen. Especially since all was doing was walking along the beach and bending down to pick up shells when I started to feel more intense groin soreness. (I was close to 6 months pregnant, and had already had mild groin soreness sometimes in the mornings but up until then it had never really been a problem).

I had an MRI at 35 weeks pregnant and it showed a labrum tear on my left hip and a possible tear on my right. It hurts to walk, I have daily hip pain and groin soreness, and I have trouble doing daily activities like putting on shoes, taking care of my kids, picking things up off the floor. Now I’m about 3.5 weeks postpartum. It’s gotten even worse after delivery, and I had been so hopeful it would get better afterwards.

Everything I read about this seems to end with surgery and then experiences I read about labrum repair surgery all say that there is a really long recovery rate of about a year. It also sounds like there is a high rate of failure and people being worse off than they were before.

I’m starting PT but am in so much pain I’m not sure how it will help. I’ve also been looking into PRP and regenerative medicine, but that doesn’t sound too hopeful either. This has me really down and really scared. I don’t want to miss out on fun experiences with my older kid and also not be able to take care of my baby. Has anyone else gone through this and been able to heal? How long does healing take?

Before getting pregnant with my second (currently 6.5 weeks along and already experiencing nausea) I finally got my fitness regiment down by being an aerialist. Specifically Lyra and silks. I’m so worried that the morning sickness is going to ruin all of my progress. I wasn’t allowed to work out with my first pregnancy because I had placenta previa that didn’t go away and ended in an emergency c-section at 35 weeks. Any tips on staying fit and fighting through the nausea? I don’t want to go back to being so weak like my first pregnancy.

Hi all, we are expecting our first child and bought a Shnuggle Curve Moses Basket with Stand... Second hand. Unfortunately, it came to us without any of the necessary fittings, so the stand itself is not usable. Is there anyone here who can give me the dimensions of the fittings for the stand, so that I can pop by the hardware store and get them? I'd appreciate it a lot!