Michelle Tant

When I was pregnant with my 3rd child, I mentioned to my midwife that I had an interest in having a homebirth. For a couple of panic stricken moments she simply stared at me. On that basis alone you would assume that she was anti-homebirth. But I happen to know she's not. Her reaction was purely to do with my birthing history. My first child was born by cesarean section. When I got pregnant that first time, I was full of plans for a natural birth. My own mother had given birth naturally with no problems, 5 times. In fact of all the women in my life I only knew one who'd had a section and that was following severe complications. So when it came about that I had to have a cesarean as a result of Jayden being in a transverse breech lie, I felt that my body had let me down without so much as a murmur of objection. They tried to turn him with an External Cephalic Version but no joy. I was booked to have him ejected through the fire escape a week later. Incidentally I went ...

That's how this whole thing with Reuben feels right now. An eclectic mix of the two. He had an ENT appt yesterday (Ear, Nose & Throat) in Eastbourne hospital. He was seen by the consultant rather than the registrar due to his severe speech delay and after checking his ear drums again, he said he wants to schedule grommets surgery straight away, can we come in next week. He said that though Reuben can hear generally, its muffled, so not much clarity and this is likely to be having an effect on his speech development. The window of real opportunity for speech development is 0-5 years and he said that as his speech is so affected he doesn't want to delay at all. But here's the kicker. We are whizzing through some surgery stuff and heart issues are mentioned and I asked would it be ok... consultant looks at his notes... there's nothing there about Reubens heart. So he then says obviously he can't do the surgery without a go ahead from the consultant anes...

This afternoon I went to an appointment with Daisy at the children's hospital. It was a follow up for the storm in a teacup rustled up by my health professionals. They initially decided she had early closure of the anterior fontanelle so we were referred straight to the hospital as the implications of this are quite serious often resulting in cranial surgery. Thankfully the consultant said that wasn't the case, that he wasn't worried at all. Turns out its highly likely my health visitor measured her head incorrectly. Either way I was intensely relieved ad you can imagine. So imagine my disbelief when they decided that she was too small for her age!!! I held my tongue, after all, this country is renowned for coming down hard on people who DON'T have a problem, and leaving those WITH a problem to get on with it. Anyhow, I digress. So blood tests ensued along with weight monitoring. All along I maintained that she was perfectly healthy, just not massive, afterall...