By Natasha Julius
On September 17, 2014, I went for a routine 8-week prenatal check-up. It was the only routine thing I would do for more than two months.
During this time, I e-mailed a small group of people. Some were aware of the pregnancy, some had plans with me that would need to be broken, and still others simply asked after my health on the wrong day. This is the first of 11 such messages. They have been edited to remove identifying information and inside references, but otherwise remain largely unchanged.
September 23, 2014
Dear Friends,
Apologies to those of you who are hearing about this for the first time. I have been living in two worlds for the past few days.
As some of you know, I went in for my 8-week prenatal checkup last Wednesday. When the midwife performed the ultrasound, there was no fetal heartbeat and little evidence of embryonic development. An ultrasound technician was brought in to confirm that there was a gestational sac, but she also could not find evidence of development inside the sac. The midwife ordered a series of blood tests to confirm the diagnosis of a non-viable pregnancy; she felt there was a possibility that fertilization happened later than would have been suggested by the date of my last menstrual period. I did not hold out much hope. In order for that to be possible, I would need to ovulate almost three weeks late – a considerable variation from an otherwise regular cycle. However, I agreed to treat the pregnancy as viable until the testing was complete.
Posted on January 19, 2015
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