Tiffini's Story Janyary 29, 2002 On October 29, 2001, I had to be put in the hospital because I was pregnant and some scary things were happening in my body. First of all, I want to explain my pregnancy condition and the problems and miracles that have occurred.  With my first child, Kyra, I itched really bad during the last trimester of my pregnancy, but never knew why.  I only knew I was miserable.  I itched like crazy.  Every part of my body itched, but it was worse on my feet and hands.  I would scratch my feet with a brush as hard as I could until sometimes it would almost bleed.  I had bruises on my thighs where I would scratch so hard trying to reach the core of the itching to try to get some relief.  I couldn't sleep.  I would try to soak in warm baths, but it didn't help.  I even tried soaking my feet in salt water, but no relief.  It was terrible.  I finally told my doctor at the time about it and how miserable I was, but all she said was "Some people just itch when they're pregnant".  When I had gone into labor, my mucous plug had broken and it was very brown.  Kyra had had her first poo-poo in my tummy and was in fetal distress.  I finally delivered her successfully on her actual due date and she was fine.  She had jaundice, but it wasn't too bad.  I got pregnant again about a year later, but miscarried the baby.  We named the baby Erin because it means "peace".  God had given me such a peace about the whole thing.  I can't really explain it.  I just know that the doctor told me that Erin's body had never formed.  God comforted me with the verse in Psalm 139:15 & 16:  "My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.  When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body."  God created and knew my precious Erin and took him/her home to be with Him, but He did not leave me forsaken during that time, but instead He gave me peace.  About 2 months later, I became pregnant again.  This time started out the same way with the usual nausea and sickness of pregnancy.  And again when I got to the third trimester, I started itching again just like I did with Kyra.  But this time seemed worse.  I would lay awake at night itching like crazy and crying my eyes out because I could not get any relief from it.  Again I tried the same things like warm baths, soaking my feet in salt water, all kinds of lotions that would say relief from itchy skin.  I tried anything I could think of that normally would stop itching, but nothing helped.  I had a new doctor this time and when I mentioned it to her she thought I had something called PUPPS.  So she prescribed me some medication called Prednisone.  It would help for the first couple of days, but would never totally take away the itching.  I was just miserable.  I had tried to look up things on the Internet that might give me some idea of what might be happening to me and if it was normal, but could not find anything at that time.  I had talked to some friends and none of them said they had any kind of itching like what I was experiencing.  Anyway, I had been to the doctor at my week 36 visit and the baby was doing fine.  But, some time that weekend, I noticed that I had not felt the baby move in quite a while.  I tried drinking some hot chocolate and then laying on my back, but still the baby would not budge.  I went to the hospital and when the ultrasound was done, found out that my baby had died.  She was at 37 wks gestation.  We named her Emma Kathryn.  She also, like Kyra, had had her first meconium in my tummy and had supposedly suffocated on it.  What a total disappointment!  What a terrible loss!  But God was still there.  He still had not forsaken me at all.  The day after Emma's funeral, God allowed me to find what my itching problem was.  It is called Obstetric Cholestatsis and it causes me to itch because my bile acids/salts build up in my liver.  For some reason my liver can't break down all the estrogen hormones during pregnancy.  And again God had comforted me in so many ways through Emma's death.   Psalm 139:16 was again an encouragement, it says,  "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of the came to be."  Even though Emma never lived a life outside my tummy, her life still had a purpose.  The one purpose of many that I want to share is that my doctor has had other patients since we lost Emma that had this same condition as me and she has been able to identify the problem and the babies have lived.  Another purpose for Emma's life was so that her next sister could be born. You guessed it, I became pregnant again.  You talk about scared to death.  Here is a brief story of how God blessed us with another beautiful baby girl and the reason why I was admitted to the hospital on October 29, 2001. My doctor referred me to a specialist.  When we arrived at her office and the nurse came in, she could not find the baby's heartbeat right away.  Well, naturally worry set in.  We went to see my doctor immediately afterward.  I had to use the bathroom when we got there and while my husband was waiting on me, he ran into my doctor and told her what had happened.  She immediately ordered an ultrasound be done.  The ultrasound showed that everything was fine.  That following Sunday, I was telling a friend of mine what had happened and she told me that she had prayed for me that day because I was heavy on her heart.  She didn't even know that I was seeing a specialist that day.  That just showed me that God was still faithful and he would be with me to reassure my faith and trust in Him throughout this pregnancy. The doctor prescribed me some medicine called Ursidiol to help with my itching.  This medicine was a miracle worker.  I hardly itched at all while taking this medicine.  I could actually sleep at night.  Turns out the cholestatsis causes the baby to go into fetal distress and can cause the first meconium that can be fatal.  This is what had happened to both Kyra and Emma.  Just Kyra survived miraculously and Emma didn't. Anyway, my doctor ran liver tests almost every week.  She also checked my bile acids regularly and also had me have several fetal distress tests.  Well in the middle of my last trimester, my bile acids shot up to 43 and normal is 8.  My doctor immediately admitted me to the hospital and had me hooked up to a fetal monitor to check on the baby 24 hrs a day. I ended up staying in the hospital almost 2 wks.  During this time, my doctor did an amniocentesis to see if the baby's lungs were developed so we could induce labor, but unfortunately they were not, so we had to wait a couple more days.  Well after we got the news about the lungs, I asked my doctor if I would be put into labor in time to save the baby if she did all of a sudden go into fetal distress.  My doctor replied with "Hopefully".  Well, "hopefully" wasn't good enough for me.  So after prayer and counseling from other friends, we asked my doctor to think about inducing me anyway.  I was 35 wks at the time.  I didn't want to get past 36 wks because that is when we think Emma died sometime between 36 and 37 wks.  I felt the baby would be safer in the NICU where she could be monitored 24 hrs a day rather than in my tummy with us wondering when she would go into distress.  The next morning my doctor agreed to induce me and we made plans to do it the next morning.  So, the next morning, Ashley was born.  My labor was great.  The nurses were great and I was assured that my baby was ALIVE and healthy.  She had to stay in the hospital for 2 wks because her lungs were immaturem she had jaundice and had problems keeping her body temperature stable.  But other than that she was perfect.  She is doing great now and as healthy as she can be.  I am just so thankful that I found out what was wrong with me and also that my doctor cared enough to search out my problem as well and was willing to do whatever it took to bring Ashley into the world.  I do want to mention one more thing of how God comforted me and gave me a peace that everything would be okay with this pregnancy.  A friend at church had told me that both her children were born at 33 wks and they were fine.  Well, the information I had been reading about Obstetric Cholestatsis had said that some babies had even died at 33 wks.  But with her telling me that, I felt a little better, but I must admit my lack of faith.  Because I remember at the start of the 33rd wk, I was itching and worried out of my mind.  Went to the doctor that day and everything was still okay with the baby.  Another interesting thing was that I was involved in a Study called "The Ways of God" by Henry Blackaby.  The weeks I was in the hospital, my lessons were on God's Sovereignty.  How He is Sovereign over all things.  Especially Creation.  And He is the creator of life.  I just felt like His assurance was with me and His new Creation in my tummy would be all right.  One way my family has decided to always remember Emma is I got one of those necklaces for Christmas where you put little people on it with your child's birthstone.  Well the little person for Emma is an Angel.  And for her birthday we bought some balloons and tied a note to one of them and set them free.  I just picture that when we get to heaven to meet her she will have those notes in her hand to show me that she knew I loved her and would never forget her.  It hurts so much to have lost a child, but to know that I have hope in seeing her one-day helps me to have peace and joy.  I know she is in My Father's arms.  And Jesus is my Heavenly Father's name. Thanks for letting me share the story of my children with you. Tiffani Hood

Tiffani wanted to share these two web sites that she found helpful. http://google.yahoo.com/bin/query?p=obstetri c+cholestasis&hc=0&hs=0    http://www.britishlivertrust.org.uk/publication s/obstetric_cholestasis.html