WEEK 12 : Week by Week Incompetent Cervix Pregnancy Guide - SYMPTOMS OF THE CONDITION?

NOTE : For the regular advice on Week 12, I suppose there are hundreds of other websites to tell you how it goes. This blog serves to supplement those sites, my personal favourites being What To Expect, Baby Centre UK and Parents. Do take note, however that I am not a professional physician, I practise law for a living and the only thing I know about incompetent cervix is through my own experience as a mother of 2 and a 17 week old baking in the oven! :)  The purpose of this blog then is just to simply share the joys and heartaches, the blessings and curses, the sadness and happiness and the disappointments and the pleasant surprises of our journey as a mom with an incompetent cervix.
 
What prompted me to start this series of blogs in the first place is because I am so sick of tired of scouring hundreds of "Week by Week Pregnancy Guide" sites that tell you the 2nd trimester marks the beginning of your "honeymoon period".  Supposedly, this is the trimester when you are not too large to be feeling clumsy yet, yet the morning sickness is over and the risk of miscarriage is significantly lower and it's time for that short babymoon and back to EXERCISE!!! You know what, whilst it may be true for most women, the start of the 2nd trimester for us moms with incompetent cervix is the start of a long tiring road to holding our little Rainbows in our arms!

No, the end of 1st trimester may be well and good when it comes to morning sickness, but the risk of miscarriage has just worsened, for us with this condition.  Unfortunately, many of us may not even know yet that we have this condition.  More often than not, there are no symptoms until it is already too late, and we don't even know the exact cause of the condition.  Sad to say, in some countries, women continue to lose their babies during late pregnancies without ever knowing why.  From observation, most women lose their babies between 20 to 24 weeks, and at that point of time our little ones are just simply too little to survive.  They are considered not to be of viability yet, and even if they survived after agonising months in the NICU, they may have a long road to recovery, or may even suffer permanent defects. 

At this stage, we have to start being careful about our activities, particularly those involving pelvic movements - sexual intercourse may not be wise as we may not know the condition of our cervix.  The ultrasound at this stage may still be unable to pick up abnormalities of the cervix yet, but within weeks, or even days, the changes may start. Here's an excerpt from Women's Health UK website on possible ways to detect IC : 


"There are descriptions of cervical assessment before pregnancy to try and detect those who may benefit from a stitch. These include checking cervical resistance or compliance, with a dilator, or specialised instrument. Whilst promising, no studies have yet found a predictor of poor outcome as good as a previous pregnancy loss.
Transvaginal ultrasound (TVS) during pregnancy has shown some promise. The usual length of the cervix is about 4cm as measured on TVS. Women with a cervical length of less than 2.5cm have been found to have a 50% risk of preterm delivery in one study. Other studies have looked at opening of the internal section of the cervix ('funnelling' or 'beaking') in response to pressure on the top of the uterus. It does seem that this finding early in pregnancy is suggestive of cervical incompetence and that the findings are progressive throughout pregnancy.
These studies are really still at an early stage and it takes a great leap to presume that on the basis of these findings alone a stitch will improve things. Larger observational studies and a cerclage study on the scale of the MRC/RCOG will hopefully follow and define the place of this investigation. At the present, this type of scan is generally confined to research centres in the UK and is certainly not to be considered 'standard of care'."

A positive outlook is of utmost importance at this point of time.  It has never been particularly pleasant for me, as I enjoyed my physical activities, especially my gym sessions and my running around and clowing around with my toddler and my preschooler.  Sometimes the guilt sets in when they want to be carried, or they just want you to take them to the pool. Do join forums and support groups, it helps to a certain degree.  But towards the end of the day, you will have to find peace within yourself to prepare yourself mentally for what is to come.