CDH Stories

My husband Danny and I found out that I was pregnant with our little "Peanut" on July 17, 2006. I had some unusual bleeding at the beginning of my pregnancy, but numerous ultrasounds confirmed that our little one was growing and healthy.

 

As with my first pregnancy, I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. Fortunately, I was able to manage it very easily and it didn't impact me too much except for my belly growing larger than normal. My pregnancy continued and was rather uneventful for the next couple of months, in November we found out that we were having a boy and we named him Owen.

Our story took an "exciting" turn in January. I went in for my 32-week ultrasound to measure the baby to make sure that he wasn't growing too big due to my gestational diabetes. His measurements were fairly normal in the ultrasound; I on the other hand was measuring big. At 32 weeks my belly was measuring at 40 weeks or full-term. The ultrasound technician discovered that this was due to polyhydramnios, or excess amniotic fluid. My OB checked with our local high-risk OB and he suggested that I come back in 10 days for another ultrasound. By the grace of God we had this additional ultrasound. It was at this ultrasound that Owen was diagnosed with a right-sided Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH). Our local hospital is not equipped to care for this type of birth defect. If it had not been detected prior to birth and I had delivered at our local hospital, Owen would have been in respiratory distress and been either life-flighted or taken by ambulance to Portland while I remained in our hospital recovering from a c-section.

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