The procedure is sometimes the best and safest option for pregnant women at risk.
By Jen Gunter, M.D., self
[post_ads]Sometimes a pregnancy
half fails. The membranes rupture before viability and an infection
sets up shop in the uterus. Medically, the pregnancy has to end; whether
the fetus is still alive or not does not matter. If an infected uterus
is left unevacuated, the bacteria will eventually spread to the blood
stream and it will be fatal. This is fact.
At
times the body offers a consolation and goes into labor. It doesn’t
seem like it at the time but it is more than a small mercy. When the
uterus does not start contracting the patient has to choose: drugs to
induce labor or a surgical procedure called dilation and evacuation
(D&E). It is like starring in a horror movie where you choose the
weapon.
Labor is labor. It hurts and
can take days. A premature uterus, especially an infected one, often
does not cooperate. Days of both grieving and waiting to grieve break
even the strongest. No one has assigned fault, in fact everyone has said
the opposite, but the pathways of sadness and self-doubt and blame cut
deeper and deeper with each taunting contraction. A brain fuddled by
lack of sleep, medication side effects, days without fresh air, and the
stench of sweat from the bed sheets cannot possibly reframe this
experience. When women tell me they “can’t even get this right” I want
to cry.
At the end of the labor there
is a baby. Often bruised and macerated. Many find that visual very hard
as technically those injuries were caused by their own body. As a doctor
you can try to explain it away as predicted medical consequences, which
they are, but your words are repelled by a force field of despair.
Sometimes the baby survives the infection and the traumatic labor and
delivery and then the patient has to decide if she is able to hold her
baby until death comes or if she is not. These things shatter people.
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The
other medical option is a D&E, a surgical procedure to remove the
pregnancy through the cervix. It requires more skill, medically
speaking, than the labor. You only come by this skill if you have done a
lot of second trimester abortions because that is exactly what it is,
but harder because an infected uterus has the consistency of soft
butter. Your instruments are like a hot knife. You are using a hot knife
to remove sharp fragments from a bed of soft butter. Do it incorrectly
and you damage the uterus, puncture the bowel, or cause catastrophic
blood loss. The fact that your patient is already ill with infection
makes every potential sequelae worse.
A D&E bypasses all of the emotional trauma of the labor and the decisions that come afterward
about holding the body. The patient gets an anesthetic and afterward
the physical part of the nightmare is over. Sometimes, if the infection
is advanced, the medical team may recommend a D&E up front. The
risks of a D&E performed by a well-trained individual are very low.
Some
women chose labor but after a day or so it is clear their body has a
different idea. An infected uterus can’t always be whipped into shape
with oxytocin and prostaglandins. A few even refuse a D&E even when
they are very ill if there is still a fetal heartbeat. As they wait for
the uterus to labor correctly they get sicker and sicker. Bacteria is
showering the blood stream. Their heart rate is unbelievably fast. Their
blood work is ominous. The staff all look at each other in that way
medical people do when we know we are on the precipice of something very
bad. Eventually, the patient agrees to the D&E and the relief is
palpable.
[post_ads]When you are the person who
will do the D&E the patient is always relieved to see you. She
either knows she doesn’t want to labor, can’t handle any more labor, or
she knows she is very sick. Sepsis makes you feel as if you are dying,
which you are.
Sometimes her partner
glares. “There is still a heartbeat,” he might say or if there is not,
“How come we need someone special for this?” He knows the answer, but he
wants me to say it. If I don’t, I can’t save the life of the person
dying in the bed, so I tell him that you can’t do a D&E’s without
abortions. This irritates many because their narrative is that abortions are never needed and yet here they are needing one or needing help from someone who can only help because of abortion training.
Without
abortion training there will soon be no one with the skill to do a
D&E and the option will be induction of labor or a hysterectomy or a
hysterotomy (a C-section, but this early it often wrecks the uterus for
future childbearing). Both a hysterectomy and a hysterotomy are major
surgeries and much more likely to have serious and even fatal
consequences than a D&E, especially for pregnant women with
infections.
D&E’s are now illegal in Texas (because of Senate Bill 8, passed last week) unless the pregnant person is very ill. How ill? I’m a gynecologist and I don’t know.
Sec. 171.102. PARTIAL-BIRTH ABORTIONS PROHIBITED.
(a) A physician or other person may not knowingly perform a partial-birth abortion.(b) Subsection (a) does not apply to a physician who performs a partial-birth abortion that is necessary to save the life of a mother whose life is endangered by a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy.Sec. 171.103. CRIMINAL PENALTY.
A person who violates Section 171.102 commits an offense. An offense under this section is a state jail felony.
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No
one knows how sick is sick enough. Is it ruptured membranes? Is it a
fever of 101 F or 103 F? Low blood pressure? How low? Tachycardia? How
fast? Positive blood cultures? Malpractice insurance doesn’t cover the
criminal action the State of Texas might take against you for saving a
woman’s life with a D&E so it is almost certain that doctors will
wait too long. This is how Savita Halappanavar died in Ireland.
Banning
D&Es unless Death himself is in your room unhooking your
intravenous is also cruel. Every choice about this pregnancy has been
taken away because of ruptured membranes and infection and now the Texas
government has taken away the only power that a pregnant woman has over
her body. Every single person I have ever counseled has known almost
immediately what feels best. Pregnant women can visualize the sequence
of medical events with labor and with a D&E. You can see it in their
faces. They know what is the least traumatic landing for them. Now in
Texas they have no say.
The cruelty
and emotional trauma imposed by SB8 aside some women who fail to respond
to labor inducing drugs will get D&Es too late and some will die.
As the hospitals lose providers by attrition who are skilled to do
D&Es there will be more and more hysterotomies and hysterectomies.
The lucky women will be the ones who go home with a big scar on their
belly to remind them of their pregnancy that wasn’t to be and how much their government hates women.
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