Why do you need to get registered, go for an ultrasound scan and why you should not always trust a doctor, said men who dedicated their lives to expectant mothers.
Andrey Evseev (obstetrician-gynecologist of the highest category, candidate of medical sciences, 24 years of experience):
– Once a pregnant woman came to us by ambulance. She was due to have a planned operation due to two scars on her uterus. But then there is a threat of rupture, an emergency, straight to the operating room. The patient is rather slender, with a small abdomen. They began to operate. When they took out one child, weighing about two and a half kilograms, they noticed that the uterus was not getting smaller. Here we were in for a surprise – we took out our second child!
And all because the woman was not registered in the antenatal clinic and did not do an ultrasound – that she had undiagnosed twins. Mom herself was most surprised. If a woman was operated on under general anesthesia, as was done before, it is not known how we would explain the presence of a second baby!
Another case was when ultrasound diagnostics was just beginning its development, and the available devices were far from perfect. A woman came to us from the department of pathology of pregnancy. By that time, she had already raised four sons and dreamed of a daughter. Mom was expecting twins, but it was virtually impossible to accurately determine the sex of the unborn child using the available ultrasound machines. We started to operate. We got one baby – it was a boy. Fifth boy! Mom was even upset. But the second baby was a girl. And then mom’s joy knew no bounds!
Sergey Zayats (head of the department, obstetrician-gynecologist of the highest category, candidate of medical sciences, 35 years of experience):
– Once we received a patient with Shereshevsky Turner syndrome – a chromosomal genetic disease that usually leads to infertility. Women with this diagnosis can only become pregnant with in vitro fertilization (IVF). The procedure costs a lot of money, but the desire to become a mother was so strong that the woman took a loan from the bank. When the required amount was in hand, the patient was examined and she was diagnosed with a serious kidney disease. With such a diagnosis, she should have been denied IVF. Obviously, greed has taken over the minds of reproductive specialists. She was “planted” with twins. Kidney disease has worsened. At a period of twenty weeks, the woman appeared at the perinatal consultation. The test results were devastating – the pregnancy had to be terminated. Otherwise, the woman could die. There was no choice.
I also recall how a woman was admitted to the regional hospital from the district at the 35th week of pregnancy with a diagnosis of polyhydramnios. Imagine the surprise of the ultrasound diagnostics doctor when he just brought the device and saw that the fetus has an intrauterine malformation, which is formed in the first trimester of pregnancy and is characterized by complete or partial absence of the bones of the cranial vault, cerebral hemispheres and soft tissues. Revealing such a defect is 100% termination of pregnancy. And the woman was carrying a child for 35 weeks and was completely in the dark. How did the district doctors fail to establish anencephaly – is it incomprehensible? It is visible even for a period of 12 weeks. And when examined at 20 weeks, it is obvious, even if the ultrasound machine is poor or the specialist is openly weak. For a woman, of course, it was a terrible shock.
Anatoly Kamaev (obstetrician-gynecologist of the highest category, candidate of medical sciences, 35 years of experience):
– It was in the 80s. I worked as a research assistant at the Institute of Obstetrics and Pediatrics. And once I had to work not with a man, but with a monkey. The animal is rare, exotic, it was bought at a zoo in Latin America for huge money at that time. It was impossible to risk the life of the monkey. And then she was giving birth – and something went wrong. They called us because then the veterinary services were not very developed. In general, the responsibility is enormous.
We took the tools and went to save the animal. As I remember now, the mother-to-be was called Circe, in honor of the Greek goddess. Childbirth was with breech presentation of the fetus. Everything, like people, only in a reduced version. The monkey could not give birth for almost a day. They helped as best they could, everything went well. For our efforts, the director gave us an annual subscription for a free visit to the zoo.
But, probably, the biggest stress for me for all the years of work was the birth of my daughter. The fact is that we, doctors, have a golden rule – do not treat, do not operate, do not give birth to direct relatives. Why so – I do not know! And I deliberately violated the taboo and took delivery from my wife, who, by the way, is also an obstetrician-gynecologist. I was incredibly nervous, but, fortunately, everything went without complications and our daughter was born.