Caitlin Victoria (Katie, Kin)

    My name is Andrea.  I first learned I was pregnant in August, '93.  I went and bought a baby name book, and looked at baby clothes like any other mother would, never dreaming what I would go through in the next few years.  

    I went to my first doctor appointment and everything was fine.  I don't remember if my first ultrasound was scheduled as a routine visit, or if they had heard something in utero and wanted to check on it.  In any case, I had the ultrasound done, went into the waiting room afterwards, and then left.  No one had told me to wait, I though everything was fine, or they would have told me while they were looking.  I was uncomfortable, had to pee, so I just wanted out of there.   When I got home, my doctor called and said that I should have waited, they wanted to discuss the results with me.  I asked him to tell me over the phone, and he refused.  At that point, I was scared.

    I made an appointment to go in and see him, 3 of us went, me, the baby's father, RJ, and my mother.  He told us that the baby had a diaphragmatic hernia, which didn't mean anything to any of us at first.  Then he said that the baby had about a 40% chance to live.  I really don't remember much about that time, just that I was scared and crying alot.  He said one option would be to terminate the pregnancy, or let it go on as normal, and be monitored very close.  I had to think about it for awhile.  He scheduled an amniocentesis, and if that had turned up any genetic anomalies, I probably would have terminated it.  But it was normal, and told us that we had a baby girl.  I immediately told everyone her name was Caitlin.

    The rest of the pregnancy went pretty normally, except for a few more ultrasounds and monitoring my contractions at about 7 months on.  I did go to the hospital in San Francisco to talk to surgeons about in utero surgery, but we weren't candidates for the procedure.  She stayed put until her due date, and then was induced. (The doctor said he didn't want her in there for longer than term, but was glad that she wasn't premature.)

This award is presented to Andrea
For Helping To Fight The War Against Birth Defects
Given on 3/26/99, by CHERUBS
The Association of Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia 
Research, Advocacy, and Support.