Pregnancy Uncut
Pregnancy Uncut is dedicated to exploring the often hidden, untold and traumatic stories of pregnancies and births that have not gone to plan. Hosted by doctors working in Women's Health, Alex Umbers and Kara Thompson, Pregnancy Uncut provides a soft place for hard conversations on topics society has historically considered taboo. Each episode uncovers a unique story through the lens of a courageous guest with first hand experience in complications such as infertility, miscarriage, stillbirth, obstetric emergencies, birth trauma, perinatal mental health, and baby loss at any stage. The show provides a unique insight into the human experience, as well as health care professionals providing context to the pregnancy complications. Pregnancy Uncut aims to help raise awareness, create a language and hope, as well as a support network for people who have experienced or know someone affected by pregnancy and it's related complications.
Pregnancy Uncut
S5. Ep3. Far from home. A farming mum's journey with fetal heart block and long distance care.
Married to a busy farmer and working as a midwife at their nearest hospital, Marnie’s dream was always to have her family born and bred close to home.
She was just 19 weeks pregnant with her second baby, when her rural GP obstetrician found that baby's heartbeat was around half what it should have been, and diagnosed fetal heart block - a rare condition that would shape the pregnancy, birth, and first months of baby Amelia's life.
What followed was the opposite of what Marnie had envisaged, with hours and hours of driving to multiple appointments, days of intense monitoring and months of uncertainty, all far from home. Impacting the whole family - Marnie is so proud of her partner Pete as he worked all hours of the day, every day, keeping the farm running; and her son Jack who quickly had to get used to spending a lot of time away from his home and his parents, something he had never done before.
Marnie shares with us her incredible story of a rural family under pressure, out of their environment, in a pandemic; and of the pacemaker that finally turned Amelia's life around.