I lost my son due to an Incompetent Cervix. I never knew IC was an actual thing until it was way too late. Cervical Incompetence is a "medical condition in which a pregnant woman's cervix begins to dilate and efface before her pregnancy has reached term. Definitions of cervical incompetence vary, but one that is frequently used is the inability of the uterine cervix to retain a pregnancy in the absence of the signs and symptoms of clinical contractions, or labor, or both in the second trimester." Cervical Incompetence results in premature birth or the loss of an otherwise healthy pregnancy. Cervical length screening checks are not routinely done during pregnancy unless there is a reason for it to be done like a previous second trimester loss or preterm delivery. There are many, many women out there that have an incompetent cervix, yet they won't be checked unless they've already dealt with a loss. That's unacceptable and unfair to me, and all women. An expectant mother should not have to lose her baby before something can be done the next time she is pregnant. If someone is checked and their cervix is shorter, then they can be monitored accordingly and receive a cervical cerclage/stitch if needed to help carry the pregnancy as far as possible. I believe there should be mandatory cervical checks during pregnancy, period. Why wait until it's too late? Why put women through the heartbreak of losing their child? It makes no sense. If they were mandatory, then maybe when I was at my routine doctor's visit the Monday before I lost my son, they could have caught it. I could have been monitored and surgically given a cerclage and my son would have had a much greater chance of making it to term instead of me ending up in the hospital and being told I had IC and there was nothing they could do because there wasn't enough cervix for a cerclage. Cervical checks NEED to be mandatory during pregnancy. No ifs, ands or buts about it. #cervicalincompetence #incompetentcervix #ic #cervicalinsufficiency #awareness #1in100 #imangry
