welcome back from planned pregnancies to
those that are unanticipated there are
steps women can take on daily basis to
help ensure that they're in optimal
health patient Cory Bowen and sweet
little low in and maternal fetal
medicine specialist with UT positions
dr. Joey England are all joining us
welcome to Houston life oh thank you
four week old sleeping beautiful low end
she is precious he's a good baby Cory
let's first start with your story she's
four weeks old you basically had a
pretty much textbook pregnancy from the
start
yes what happened at my seven-week
ultrasound to confirm pregnancy they had
found a about a seven centimeter cysts
about the size of a grapefruit on my
left ovary I believe and that was
something we needed to keep an eye on
but at 24 and a half weeks that cyst
burst okay so I came in to my original
hospital with lots of pain not really
quite sure what's going on and dr.
England found me the next day on her
rotation and they took me in for surgery
in the Medical Center so in surgery at
24 weeks dr. England I mean that just
makes your heart stop a little bit that
cyst obviously burst and she needed
medical attention immediately I mean
what about the baby in that point
absolutely so with Cory's case we were
very concerned about her going into
preterm labor and having an abdominal
surgery and for her we made some
preparations for her in the Medical
Center by giving her betamethasone to
help the babies lowens lungs be more
mature but it's still very high risk for
a preterm labor and delivery and and
right at the cusp of peri viability so
that reaction when you were told we have
to take you any emergency surgery Cory I
can't imagine what was going through
your head some degree it was a relief
because we spent about a day and a half
not quite knowing what was going on and
so when doctor England is a maternal
fetal medicine specialist came in and
said we need to do exploratory surgery
it was almost a relief to have someone
come in that had the knowledge base and
the expertise to say when
to go in there and look around and were
equipped to do that so I wanted up
happening was that my bowels had shut
down from just from that sister sting
and yes the surgery was scary but also
to have someone with answers gives you
some peace of mind and also when you're
hurting that bad you know it's just to
do something was helpful and this we're
so blessed to have of course the Medical
Center in our backyard and you look at
sweet little low in here not a care in
the world right now which is so
fantastic but doctor England here's your
soapbox at this point and whether it's
planned or not planned how do we ensure
that women truly have a healthy
pregnancy so it's really important to no
matter what age you are see provider
whether that's an ob/gyn or a different
type of primary care physician your
family medicine doctor all women of
reproductive age should be seeing a
physician some type of provider making
sure that the medications they're taking
are safe for them getting regular care
to make sure they don't have any
hypertensive disease and it's important
to make sure you're up-to-date on all of
your vaccinations absolutely and we
should mention that this statistic this
is quite alarming that 50% of all
pregnancies are unplanned they are and
that's where it becomes important to
already be on a prenatal vitamin so all
women of reproductive age should be on a
prenatal vitamin that contains folic
acid because it can help prevent spina
bifida and other birth defects and of
course Cori when when you went in to
confirm pregnancy that's when that cyst
was found and you said that okay we're
gonna monitor this and so the benefits
of having that initial doctor's
appointment where some women maybe think
that they don't have access to that type
of care but super important at that time
right doctor it really is because in
Corey's case she came in with a history
where they had already diagnosed an
ovarian cysts so the flag was raised
when we didn't see that cyst on her
ultrasound and it led to the diagnosis
of a ruptured ovarian cyst in Cory's
case and should mention I know
Loen was born four weeks ago yes was was
the delivery or birth
any full-time and everything was great
37 weeks on so technically full-term yes
yes that is so great I did a cesarean
and that's really the point too is that
we want to not have pretty mature babies
if we don't have to right absolutely and
in 2016 this is our another interesting
in Texas one in ten babies were born
preterm I know some of these cases we
can't there's medical issues that need
to be done but is there what can we do
to prevent that so here at UT Health
we've adopted Universal cervical length
screening which is performed at the time
of the anatomy ultrasound and that's
where we do a transvaginal ultrasound to
see how long the woman's cervix is if
it's a very short cervix we can actually
start therapy with progesterone to
decrease the risk of preterm births so
again it's really helpful to see your
OBGYN early in the pregnancy so that all
these pieces can be evaluated well we
appreciate you coming in sharing your
story and sharing baby Loen with us I
know you were stressed out Cory you
thought oh she's gonna cry perfect her
TV debut is perfect just like I'm the ha
maitenance one she's alone you telling
your story and doctor thanks so much for
being here as well and by the way guys
to schedule an appointment or for more
information this is the number that you
can call 888 for UT Doc's or visit UT
positions com ladies thanks again of
course thank you so much