32 Endometriosis, Fibroids, and Fertility…Oh, My! Dr. Kendra Segura, OBGYN, Shares her Birth Story

Dr. Kendra Segura, world-renowned OB/GYN, shares her personal trials, tribulations, and soaring joys about her fertility and birthing journey in this episode of Birth Story Podcast. She is passionate about women’s health education and Heidi is excited to share Dr. Segura’s story with you.

Looking for a Virtual Doula to create a custom birthing experience and guide you through your journey to parenthood in the United States? Contact Heidi at www.mydoulaheidi.com

For additional free birth education resources and to purchase Heidi’s book, Birth Story: Pregnancy Guidebook + Journal, visit www.birthstory.com.

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TRANSCRIPTION

Does a contraction feel like? How do I know if I'm in labor and what did the day of labor look like? Wait, is this normal? Hey, I'm Heidi. My best friends. Call me hides. I'm a certified birth doula host of this podcast and author of birth story and interactive pregnancy guidebook. I have supported hundreds of women through their labor and deliveries, and I believe every one of them and you deserves a microphone and a state.

So here we are within each one to get answers to these tough questions, birth story, where we talk about pregnancy labor deliveries, where we tell our stories and share our feelings. And of course, chat about our favorite baby products and motherhood. And because I'm passionate about burnout comes, you will hear from some of the top experts in labor and delivery, whether you are pregnant, trying desperately to get pregnant, or you just love a good birth story.

I hope you will stick around and be part of this birth story family. Dr. Kendra. Welcome to the birth story podcast. Thank you Heidi. For having me. I'm excited. Oh my gosh. Thank you for being here. I'm just, it's incredible what you're doing, what your life purpose is and that you're a new mom. So today everyone that's listening, we have dr.

Kendra on and Kendra, tell us all about who you are, what you're doing, what your mission is, and then we're gonna hear all about your birth. Story and yeah, exactly what it's like when you're an obstetrician and then you become pregnant and, you know, go to have your own baby. So, um, tell us a little bit.

Yeah. Okay. So hi everybody. My name is dr. Kendra Sigora and I am a physician that basically I had a career change later in life. So I was an older medical student and I did my training in upstate New York, Rochester, New York. But before I got into medicine and before I became an obstetrician gynecologist, I was working in public health.

I was an epidemiologist working for the Los Angeles County. And so I've always had a passion for preventive care, preventive health due to personal reasons. I was diagnosed with endometriosis at age 19. And we had no idea what that word meant. You know, the way I was raised, you know, we didn't go to the gynecologist unless you were having sex and I wasn't having sex.

So there was no need to go to the gynecologist in my family. We never spoke about periods and my parents didn't know that. You know, when a, when a young woman starts her period, that's probably a good time to have an introduction to the OB GYN. So my passion and comes from personal experiences with, and, um, my son spark for medicine came when I was working as an epidemiologist.

And I realized that I love to work with patients and people. And so I did a crazy thing and I dare to change my career. And here I am. Passionate about women's health. And I also, um, have a fertility story because I was diagnosed with endometriosis and just briefly endometriosis, it's just when your period kind of retrograde back into your system and you have into mutual tissue, which is the tissue that creates your period and it causes.

Pain. So a lot of women with chronic pelvic pain, you know, endometriosis is something that a healthcare provider would be thinking of. And no one really knows why when it gets into me, drosis is just a theory that we're thinking retrograde menstruation, but definitely this kind of leads me to worry him today.

And I went through IVF three years of that with me and my husband and I also had fibrates, you know, later, you know, being older. And a lot of women develop fibrates in your thirties. Again, no one knows w why people get fibroids. And, you know, just, just to, um, you know, I like to always explain to people when I say these random words, because I don't like to take it for granted that just because we hear about fibers, that we know what they are in simple terms, it's just fibroids are smooth muscle tumor people here tomorrow.

Oh my God. But it's benign. It's not cancerous and nobody knows why women get it when they're, when they get older. So some people say it's diet, genetics, so much research into women's health needs to be done more of it. And so definitely Heidi, I'm glad that you, you know, have this plan. For him, I'm excited to tell my story and, you know, a patient being on the other side of, you know, the fertility journey being on the, their side of, you know, having depending on good doctors, depending on good or staff, because I was a high risk pregnancy, so I'm ready to get into it.

Oh, my goodness. Okay. I I'm sorry. Feel for you, but my mind is also like, Ooh, I have a thousand questions for you. And the first thing I want to say is thank you so much for stopping and taking the time to define things like endometriosis and fibroids. And I promise the audience as we continue with these podcasts, we stop and pause.

And we define, because what I'm finding is that all of these young women, dr. Kendra, the 12 and older are listening to podcasts. And I have 16, 17 and 18 year olds who are emailing me every single day. Say I don't have a baby yet. I'm not sure they're but they're listening to this podcast for education because maybe they're like you and they're in a family where their parents aren't talking and they're seeking.

Oh, I'm really curious. Or maybe they have a friend who's pregnant. Um, So anyways, so it's really important that we stop in some of these terms that we kind of typically gloss over that we make sure that we're defining. Okay. So let me start with wait. So you're practicing and you, you just mentioned a little bit about this fertility journey, but like back me up.

How old are you right now? Definitely. So I am 40 years old, 40 years old. And so I got an, and I think this is a very important to, you know, touch upon, you know, age and getting married or even women who aren't married and you want to, you know, go down their fertility road because the trend in America, you know, women that come to my office and they want to get pregnant, they're in their mid.

To late thirties, you know, women, we are going on to higher education. We are able to kind of weigh our options. More of that pressure of, you know, when my parents got married, my mom was probably 20 years old. I think. So. You know, times are changing and, you know, with, with the change and the trend of women coming in and, and they're getting, you know, pregnant older, and also we hear the term now it's becoming popular.

It's geriatric pregnancy. It sounds awful, but geriatric meaning for, um, OB purposes is 35 years and older. So in my practice, I practice in Southern California. I'm seeing more women coming in for geriatric pregnancies. If you will. I mean, I wish there was a better term for that, but 35 is still young, you know, still young to me.

So, so yeah, definitely. That's the trend that's going on now, when you started thinking about, like you said that you went to medical school later and you know, your career and was that primary focus in your relationship? So when did you start thinking about, okay, I want to have a baby. A great question.

You know, I got married at age 33 and I got married to my husband. Who's also a physician. Um, and you know, I didn't have time to really date. So you kind of date who's around, you know, So just being so career driven. And again, I changed my career, you know, so it was like, really, I had to make a decision like, okay, Kendra.

So you're not going to get married, you know, early, and you're going to like push off having babies. So I did know that, but I didn't know, you know, how late I was going to be pushing in. And I always knew because I got diagnosed at age 19 with endometriosis. I always knew in the back way in the back of my mind, my gynecologist told me, you know, you might have problems.

You know, having babies, you know, and as a 19 year old, you know, at that time I was a tennis player. I played college tennis boyfriends, and, you know, babies was the last thing I was thinking about, but I never did forget that he told me that I might have problems getting pregnant. So, you know, keep that in mind.

And I, and I older now and I looked back and he was my gynecologist for many, many, many, many, many years. You know, he just wanted me to kind of, you know, have that in my mind, not. To put me down, but just to prepare me, you know, and I'm glad he did because, you know, as I went into medicine, you know, I always, you know, told a guy that, you know, I have endometriosis.

And so that might mean I might have trouble getting pregnant. And for me, you know, me being in medical school, me, you know, being, you know, even in public health, I was always kind of. You know, diligent and letting people know, and it's not something that everybody has to do, you know, if you have endometriosis, so my God, you know, you meet a guy and you say, hi, my name is Ken driving Dimitrios.

There's no, but just for me, any guy that I was serious with, you know, I wanted him to kind of know that, Hey, you know, maybe we won't be having, you know, maybe I might can't. Be able to have children or maybe I just might have one or two, but just, it was my personal decision. So anyway, so what I want to hear next is okay, because you're a physician, did you just say, okay, I have endometriosis and this might be Robin, so like let's just go get IVF or did you try to get pregnant naturally first?

Right. Okay. So, um, so age 33, I got married. It's still an OB GYN resident and my husband was internal medicine. And, you know, at that point, you know, I stopped birth control because birth control is a group way to suppress endometrial tissue. And so I stayed on that. You know, I, I was a good girl. I listened to my gynecologist and I stayed on that for many years.

And so when I got married, you know, I stopped birth control. And so when I stopped my birth control for about three years, that is when me and my husband were trying to conceive naturally. And unfortunately through that process, you know, me being in my thirties, that's when I developed fibroids. And so do you see how for my fertility journey, it was starting to look bleak, you know, myself with a diagnosis of endometriosis I'm in my office.

Thirties. Um, I was a stressed out resident because, you know, unfortunately stress does suppress ovulation. So I just have this scroll of, you know, differentials here to say that, Hey, okay, Andrea, you know, you might not be able to have children. So with IB, with, um, endometriosis fibroids, um, I was very busy.

Um, after three years, um, I decided to, you know, that maybe I need to start looking into taking care of my fibers. Cause at that point I moved from the East coast. I moved to California, know this is where California is originally, where I'm from and I'm getting ready to start, you know, my new dream job.

And I basically had heavy bleeding and I ignored it. For another two years, allowing the fibroids to grow even more. So, you know, not on birth control, trying to conceive, you know, I understand denial a lot of, a lot of times people, you know, would say, Hey, how could a woman, you know, let her fibroids grow to, you know, a size of a melon or, you know, even watermelon size, you know?

And. I know when we're talking about it, it seems like common sense go to the doctor. You know, you've been having this problem for how long, but denial, you know, we can't underestimate the power of denial. It's very strong and I have a strong denial and. And I've seen it. And that's why I'm so big on coming on platforms like yours, like yours, Heidi, and in big lawn, you know, educating patients to take care of themselves because I know I have to fight, you know, prac practical things like a lot of us can't miss them work.

You know, there's a lot of pressure that women have, you know, wearing multiple hats, being a lot of us or bread or the only breadwinner in the home. And you can't take off her insurance, you know, or, you know, just not wanting to face it. The journey of your fertility in Heidi. I found that that was my issue.

I was the OB GYN that I gave diagnosis of infertility and sub fertility, but I wasn't ready to face my own. And that was the, probably the reason why it took me quite a while to get help for my heavy bleeding, which later resulted in me having what they call a myomectomy, which is this removal of the fibroids.

And so that was another ding against, you know, this, this hope or dream of having a baby, you know, carrying my own baby, because now my uterus was, is, is, was violated with surgical instruments and removal of fibroids causing scar tissue. So as the years went on, Things got stacked up against me. The odds were against me and having, you know, carrying my child or having my own child because now how old am I that?

And I'm 36 now we're 37. So I was at that point, my own doctor. Cut to say, Hey, Kendra, you and hope are better. Wait, you know, you better face your fertility and it's now or never. So that led to another, their decision I had to make was basically I had to stop working and start working part time and, and really kind of make a decision and dedicate, Hey, I'm going to dedicate this next year to my fertility.

And that was not an easy decision. And a lot of women, unfortunately, don't have that choice. And so. That I, I, so yeah, the last couple of years have been a rural wind of huge decisionmaking and hope. I see your next book being called face your fertility to tell the story of courage and to encourage women.

And the reason I want to interject right here is because it is. So important when I'm talking to my dual clients or my friends or on this platform or anything in, in where I live in Charlotte, North Carolina, the obstetricians will tell you to try for a year and come see me if you are not pregnant in a year.

And I am fighting very hard against that. I'm like, if you are not pregnant in six months, you need to face your fertility. You need to go back to the doctor. We need to start talking about, okay. You know, w what is your diet? What is your stress level? W you know, let's get an ultrasound. If you have insurance, let's find out what's going on in the environment.

Okay. But, you know, to not have any pregnancy at all when you're obviating for six months. And again, I'm not an obstetrician, but I just see people waiting too long, you know, so you're doing Heidi, but what you're doing is so, so, so just to get out the medical definition is just so you know, women can be clear because a lot of times, and the reason why I'm on the internet, Is because, you know, I welcome, you know, women, you know, sending me, you know, DMS, private messages and, and what a lot of private messages I find is that the women are going to the doctors just want to double check to say, Hey, you know, I know you're not my doctor, but this is what's going on.

And I encourage that Heidi, because. You know, asking questions is key. And what you're doing is you're saying, Hey, w Oh, a girl who is younger than 35 years of age, no GYN, history, meaning no diagnosis of fibroids of individual doses of polycystic ovarian syndrome, a woman who is healthy with no diagnosis.

And she, that woman has one year. To try to get pregnant because in one year 80% of healthy women, younger than 35 can get pregnant. And the other percentage takes a year and a half. So if you're 35 and older it's six months, but what you're saying, and I encouraged Heidi, is that you're saying, Hey, young woman, young, healthy woman younger than 35.

If you're not pregnant in six months, go to the doctor because this is where questions you can ask questions. This is where maybe you do have. Painful periods. When we sit and take time and have a conversation, maybe you're not getting your period every month. Maybe you're you're spotting after sex or you're spotting between periods.

So going to the doctor, the gynecologist after. Six months, you know, being younger than 35, that's just you gathering information and you might let the physician together. You guys can uncover, Hey, wait a minute. Maybe you do have a diagnosis. The PCO is, and we don't know it yet. So you know what? I encourage that.

And so that's why I kind of like to say, this is why doctors say that, right? And maybe this is why you should be an advocate for yourself, because if you don't want to lose time, you know, a year is a long time to then find out something, you have something going on that you probably could have fixed if you had more doctor visits.

So I applaud you for that, Heidi. Yeah. And another thing too, is that at least with my doula clients, A significant portion of them have a male factor infertility. And so we spend all of this time as women thinking it's my responsibility to get pregnant and it's my body. And in your case, it seems to be, it was a female factor, um, right.

Fertility, but. You know, let's not gloss over that, you know, the shape of the sperm, the amount of the sperm, you know, the motility of this that we can't gloss over it you're right. Because it's 30%. Malefactor. And 30% is not zero, so that's why we can't gloss over it. And, um, in addition, it is, you know, things like that, maybe the male, you know, maybe he has no sperm issues, but guess what, Heidi.

If a man isn't with a good diet, if he doesn't have, if he's drinking a lot, you know, now THC marijuana is now legal. So, you know, we're, you know, being, you know, working in the hospital, we, everybody is, seems like, has a positive, um, Drug tests for THC. So a lot of young people don't even know, you know that, Hey, you know, if you're drinking a lot, if you're smoking weed or doing drugs, um, if you're not taking your vitamins, okay.

That may be periodically. Your sperm count can be low or, or the shape can be weird or different. So even though generally the male could be healthy, but if he's not living that lifestyle, you know, his sperm, you know, somebody have dead sperm, you know, cause because they drink so much. So a lot of these things people don't know.

And so, so if you are a woman that's. This is not Satan fertile. Most of us are sub Virto and your partner isn't living the healthiest lifestyle. It makes sense all the harder. So definitely, you know, like I said, 30% is not zero. So, so for sure if it's taking you. Months like, you know, six months and you're with the same partner, you know, maybe both of you guys should go to the doctor.

I always encouraged, you know, the partners, the males to go to their primary care doctor cause the semen analysis, you know, it doesn't hurt and it tells you a lot and it kind of gives you a reality check the diet, you know, the, our lifestyle does attribute to having good sperm, having good eggs. Now we're going to take a short break to just share a few things with you.

Things for listening to the birth story podcast. I am so excited to announce the launch of my book, birth story, a 42 week guide for your pregnancy, a collection of these birth stories, a ton of doula advice, and yeah,  prompts. You can order a copy today@birthstory.com. It also will mean the world to me. If you'll spread the word about this podcast, so on Stitcher or on iTunes, just leave a review.

Thanks. So Kendra through all of this, you and your husband decided to go down the IVF journey and how long did it, or how many transfers did it take for you to get pregnant via IVF? Okay. So my journey with heart being on a fertility treatment, reproductive technology, wasn't, wasn't straight forward because again, you know, I am a physician and, you know, people are kind of, sometimes women don't understand how you could put your career ahead of things, but when you, you sacrifice like I did.

And when you are happy, when you have a strong denial, Like I do. And it was really hard for me to face my fertility for me, myself. I delayed everything. So I got a little depressed when I realized. That I had to have my fibroids removed and I was kind of forced into that because I had heavy bleeding and I'll just tell a quick little story and just, and I'm telling this, and I'm being transparent because, you know, I want to identify with the people out there.

And I understand that, you know, when you are just refusing to get help, I totally get it because I too, and that patient. So I was doing a procedure on a woman. I'm in the office. And I was trying to sample her endometrium because she had abnormal, uterine bleeding. That's what we call it. And, um, this woman, you know, she didn't get help for a very long time.

And it was just a bloody procedure. Blood was everywhere. And my nurse, you know, after, at the end of the procedure, My nurse was, you know, um, they're helping me and I was thinking, geez, you know, Kendra, you know, there's, this is really bloody. And my nurse, you know, gently and kindly said, dr. Sigora you're bleeding.

And so what happened is that I was bleeding on the procedure, uh, a seat. And bleeding through my scrubs. So the patient was bleeding. I was bleeding and I then went on to have like, you know, intense abdominal pain. That's called dysmenorrhea is when you have painful periods and a passing large sites, clot.

I literally felt like I wanted to pass out. And so after that day I just changed my score. I still didn't go home. I continued that day was M in office procedure day for me. And so I should have went home, but I said, you know what, let me change my scrubs and let me continue the day. It wasn't until I got home with my husband where he said, you don't look.

Good. You look like you need a blood transfusion. And my husband said, Kendra, if you don't get help, now, you're going to end up getting help. When you're in, I have to take you to the ER and you have to get a blood transfusion and then you have to have surgery. So you choose, you either have unscheduled surgery or you have a game plan.

You get your doctor and you have a game plan. So that was my huge wake up call because unscheduled surgery is never a position that you want to be in. And as a physician on the other side of that, you know, I do unscheduled surgeries all the time, but it's not the best. It's not the optimal situation to be in.

So at that point, me and my husband decided to freeze our eggs, freeze, freeze my eggs. And then basically this is, you know, probably be another talk. But, um, as far as fertility goes, it's, um, embryos have a better chance. Of surviving versus eggs alone. So I'm fortunate enough to already have a husband. So we decided to freeze embryos at that point.

And the reason why is because I know that after I have my fibroids removed, I have to let my uterus heal. You know, for at least six months, you should let your uterus heal before you begin any fertility treatments. And so that's what we ended up doing. We ended up freezing our embryos and, and my head, my myomectomy.

And then after that, you know, I healed for probably a year. I let myself heal for a year. Cause work got in the way, you know, life got in the way. And then we did one cycle of IVF and just to. No, you know, a lot of times people, Oh, IVF, especially with the trend of a lot of movie stars, getting old, getting pregnant older, you know, in their fifties, late forties, having twins.

And now with genetic editing going on people, you know, they know you can choose the sex. So that is. Basically, I have to fight that because people are misled because the way the media portrays it, it's something easy. And so a lot of women are coming in and opting to do fertility treatment because they want to start choosing, you know, what kind of baby they want, what sex they want in twins or not.

And so that is a huge. I want to say misnomer, you know, for lack of a better term, because of that is like, no, no, no, no, no, you don't choose this. And so basically kind of got off track there because no, it's really good though, because. You know, what I know about IVF is that you have to take hormones, the pH balance and the uterus.

I mean like it has to be this perfect environment before this transfer. It is not an easy thing. It's not easy emotionally. It's not easy physically. There's no guarantee that the transfer or transfers. If you transfer multiple embryos will be succinct. Exactly. Exactly. And so as healthcare providers, we have to fight it, pop culture, you know?

And so, so I, that's why I spend a little bit more time because my passion is education. I spent a little bit more time with patients educating them because they go back to their friends and they can tell them. Friends. So, you know, you spend time and you educate one person, they can go and educate, you know, many more, you know, that know that the women that wouldn't typically come to see the doctor, but just to let you know how, you know, the ultimate the position has God, because the stats for me.

So the statistic for a success, well, IVF outcome birth live birth is 33% and a woman. And a man with no GYN in history and being, you know, younger than 35, the woman. Yeah. So for me, let's, let's reveal the odds stacked up against me at the time I was 39 years old. I have my diagnosis of endometriosis. I still have vibrates.

Cause you know, even though you have. Removal. There's still, some doctor can't get to vibrates and I probably had some scarring due to the surgery. So with all of that, you know, it's a miracle, you know, it's a miracle with prayer, you know, that I could carry my baby and, you know, and of course that the, the transplant took, you know, so that's why, you know, I'm just.

So grateful and I want to share my story. And the whole point is that I tried and, and me as a physician and me with my coworkers, I have a lot of OB GYN, coworkers. You know, we really thought, you know, surrogacy the best because I had six teen fibroids removed from my uterus. So at that point, remember, you know, it's hard to turn off my doctor hat, what uterus is left.

At that point, you know? And so, um, I just tried and I'm glad that I kind of went through the steps. It took a lot of courage because again, being who I am, it was just, I was scared to death to now face my own fertility journey was okay for me with my white coat. Telling other women, you know what to do.

But when it came to me, I had a lot of fear and my fear made me procrastinate and made me not think of it. And I kept busy, you know, because I didn't want to face it, but it meant I was made to face it. And it was a reality, a hard talk from my, my doctor, my fertility, a doctor that woke me up that those odds were much lower than that.

33% also. Well, let's explain one thing really quick to anybody who's listening. Is that when you w like what the implication of uterine scar tissue okay. Is because one of the things I think is a misconception and we talk about an IVF transfer is could you just talk a little bit about the fact that it's a transfer and we're not like picking them up place that it implants, right?

Absolutely. Yeah. So share about that a little bit. Yes. So basically what happens and we're in reason why we say transplant, our implant, you know, these terms. So, so what exactly is, is when you, um, for myself and my situation. So the doctor, the fertility specialists, um, they took the egg and the sperm and they made it embryo.

And so that develops in a lab. And so, um, I have a frozen transfer, so that means they froze the babies. And when I was ready after I healed from my surgery, then you start hormones to plan for the trends. And so basically it's something that you do in the office. It's almost like the setup of a pap smear.

Okay. So it's, you know, cause people think like, you know, some elaborate. You know, display? No, it's very simple. It's just, you know, you're in the stirrups and the, and it's almost like syringe, you know, a Turkey, a syringe that, you know, Thanksgiving is around the corner. So that's on my mind, but it's similar to having a syringe and the doctor will then go in, try to, you know, put, put the embryo far into what we're thinking, you know, through the cervix, into the uterus.

And the hope is that the embryo will implant in a good place, a good place, meaning away from the cervix. And so a lot of times, so, so, so for me, my, if you're healthy, young, no issues, the first IVF transfer, that should be a 33% success rate of a live birth. So. Again, with all my issues. You just keep knocking that down is, you know, less than 10%, you know, to say the least.

So again, you're hoping that that the embryo would be healthy enough to implant in the uterus versus just kind of just escape, you know, cause our uterus contracts after that and kind of gets rid of any bacteria. And you just pray to God that the embryo is an in that bacteria, that the uterus is getting rid of.

So interesting. So how many embryos did you implant? Two, we did two. So one didn't take in my heart. Heart is my son's name. He's four months and he, he took eight. He's a tough, he's a tough guy. He's a tough little dude. I love it. Well, let's I want to hear all about heart's birth story. So. Why don't you like, let's jump ahead a little bit because yeah.

Yeah. You find out that you're pregnant and then I want to know, like, how did you know you were in labor as an OB GYN? Like how did you know it's different when you're talking to your patients, but like, how did you know you were in labor? Did you get induced? Did you go naturally? You know, did you schedule your C-section?

I've no idea how this is about to end. Yes. Okay. So jumping ahead. So I had to have a schedule C section because I had my fibroid surgery. So I had my C-section pretty. Pretty late, uh, 38 weeks in five days. So you can go from anywhere, you know, depending on the extent of the surgery from 36 weeks to 38 weeks.

So I went to 38 and five due to work scheduling, you know, again, you know, I'm, I'm always pushing the limit. God bless my OB GYN because I was not the easiest patient. So since I had my C-section scheduled pretty late and I was working after I got out of. The danger zones. I did have some vaginal bleeding early on in the pregnancy.

I had a healthy pregnancy, um, all the way up until I delivered. So I would, so I was working. So I started working again. So I was actually in what we call latent labor early labor for four days. Before I actually went in for my C-section and me having that strong denial factor. I didn't go to the hospital, you know, I should have went to the hospital.

Those of everyone listening. Don't do what dr. Sigora did go to the hospital. So I was contracting and I was having what they call back labor. So all I had, I had, I had painful, lower back pain and I had strong rectal pain. So those were contractions and I have such a high pain tolerance. I was still nesting.

I was running errands with my husband, but I was in a foul mood. I was in a bad mood for days. And so people would ask me, you know, are you happy that you're having a baby? And I was like, I don't know. I didn't realize that I was having these contractions, but I was feeling the rectal pressure, probably every, every four minutes at its worst.

But I, it didn't click that Kendra. These are contractions or maybe. Maybe I'm smarter than I think maybe I knew, but I just didn't want to go unscheduled. I think subconsciously I didn't want another physician doing my C-section. So if my water didn't break, I was just going to write it out and it was painful.

And when I got to the hospital, they put me on the monitor. I was contracting every three minutes. Did they check your cervix? No, I didn't dare have them check. I bet you were at least four centimeter. Oh my God. I was like for four days and now looking back, it was painful, Heidi. That was painful. So that's why I say I don't recommend any women doing that, especially when you had prior surgery on the uterus go to the hospital.

So my baby, he was, he was a big boy. He was eight pounds, five ounces. Oh my goodness. At 38 five. Wow. He was a big boy. And so he was naughty. He was transverse presentation. Oh, I figured when you said back labor, I was like, that is not good. So he was transverse and he was back down. So that's the hardest.

Presentation for an OB GYN to deliver the baby. Cause you, you don't really have anything to grab. And so my, me and my doctor, we knew the presentation beforehand. And again, so here I go, I'm in the operating room and I realize that I'm really depending on the or staff and I'm the OB GYN that I always go.

And I hope my patient's hand when they're getting their spinal I'm with. Them because you want a familiar face, you know, in the, or it's, it's a whole bunch of people, no one, you know, the patient doesn't know anybody, but you know, your doctor. So I tend to like to hold their hand, look at me, you know, and kind of get them, talk to them because it gets overwhelming.

And so for me being a patient. You know, my doctor, you know, he did come there, we were together, you know, the or staff was very kind and guess what, Heidi, I got my spinal and literally I wanted to just have a panic attack. And, and this has happened to me. I've had patients touch, you know, the blue sheet, which is, you know, the sterile sheets that we have in the, or I've had patients, you know, have a panic attack.

And here I go in my mind, I literally. You know, want it to lose it because I didn't like not feeling my legs and I hear this all the time. So I just felt like everything that I've heard as no BGY and I was feeling all of it. And so my anesthesiologist was so kind, this is what I'm getting reminded. The anesthesiologist is very important in a C section because they're on the other side of that blue sheet with you.

And he calmed me down. Um, this hospital was so kind, they allowed my husband and my sister to be in the or room with me. And I was out of it, Heidi. But. I knew every step that my OB GYN and the assistant, I knew every meaning when they start the skin incision, when they're, you know, the, you know, at my fat getting down to my fascia, getting to my uterus, I knew the point where they were trying to get it.

My baby out in Heidi, this is where it turned into a soap opera, or, you know, I guess for a split second, a nightmare, if you will, it took four minutes for them to get my baby's head out. Yeah, because our position. Wow. And I have to tell you the normal, because you won't be able to appreciate four minutes unless people know the normal.

So really, um, when the physician cuts out the uterus. It takes probably 30 to 45 seconds. The minute at the most to get the baby out. This took four. Now, were they talking to you or they like telling you or where's everybody quiet. Everyone was quiet and every surgeon has their own style, but you know, I love to talk.

So I'm, I'm the assistant and the surgeon. I talk, I talk things out, especially after. It hits a minute when it, when it's taking longer than a minute, this is when most people will talk things out, like say, Hey, you know, um, cause at this point, remember I told you my baby was transferred. So the surgeon has the, make the decision at the time.

Am I going to make this baby breech? Or I'm going to turn, turn, head down. So this is the decision you make. Once you kind of get in there to see what's going on. And so I, there, it was complete silence, but again, I couldn't even talk myself because of all the medication. But I was with it. I literally, when it got to two minutes, I wanted to reach, I have a long arm.

I wanted to reach over and get him out. Do you know what I mean? So this was nerve wracking. So he, so finally my doctor does a great job. He gets, he gets the baby out and there's no cry. I mean, how many times have I delivered babies? And we love to hear that cry. You know, and everybody takes a big side.

Really? There was no cry. Um, my baby ended up having to get intubated. They called code white, which is for the pediatric team to come on in to resuscitate. Yeah. So this was something and I just, I was extremely calm and I said one prayer. I said, God, I know you didn't bring me this far. For my baby to get cerebral palsy, if he lives.

Do you know what I mean? Like in my mind, because I was very calm and the, or staff, the nurses were so good at updating me, updating me and literally hold at eight minutes, lo and behold. My baby took his first huge breath. Was he still attached to the placenta? No. Is this is immediately you're rushed over and immediately the pediatrics a long time.

Yeah. Yeah. It comes in and starts taking over and you know, miraculously, he didn't have to go to the neonatal ICU. He stayed with me and I've never in my clinical practice have seen that. So, you know, I really believe this baby is heaven sent and I think the, or staff, I think my doctors, I was heavily dependent and reliant on them.

I. Couldn't do a thing. Okay. I have a question for you though. Something that I don't understand that people listening might also not understand why when you have a scenario section like that, why can you not wait to cut the cord until after the placenta is delivered also so that the baby's still getting oxygen from the placenta?

Like, does that make sense? Like medically, like why do we have to disconnect right away? That's what I want now, because when the baby, at that point, when you cut into the uterus, the oxygen saturation status is already being compromised to the baby. Does that make sense? Yeah, you're already interrupting it.

So if everything is healthy, you know, what, what we've, you know, it's continuing to change as far as when you cut. The cord. So some people and some facilities will say one minute, if everything's all good. Okay. It's changed so much within the last three years, as far as full term babies, getting the extra oxygen, the red blood cells, um, when they say, Hey, doctor's degree, you can't cut the cord until it's 60 seconds or 30 seconds.

So that just changed to, you know, pre preterm. You know what I mean? So they changing it. So I don't want to speak on that cause the minute I do, they're going to change the rule again. But, but when you're having issues, there's no time to make sure the baby gets more red blood cells. You have to bring the baby directly to the pediatrician when you're having, when it's a high risk.

Well, when there's something going on with the baby. Okay. That makes sense. Then I was just, um, I was just curious, you know, if that would have helped or not helped. So, dr. Kendra, I am so happy for you that your sweet little heart came out. Perfect. And even after that kind of scary moment for you, that you have a thriving baby, and God did bring you so far, and God did give you this gift and you took a less than 10% and you bet on yourself and I'm so proud of you.

Thank you for sharing your beautiful story today with us. And will you please come back on the podcast and we'll do an expert talk with dr. Kendra and we'll for sure. Yeah. Let's pull our audiences and see what people want to talk about, but I loved hearing your story. Thank you for sharing what it's like to go through a fertility as a plant to Syrian.

You know what it's like to be an OB GYN in an operating room as a patient I've learned so much. And I appreciate all that. You are. Thank you, doctor Kendra and Heidi. I do just want to say my, in a nutshell, my learning point as a patient. And a physician. My learning point is that God is the ultimate physician.

And as a patient, you know, you pray for competent expert people around you, but also you pray for, you know, whatever you believe in. You pray for that. Um, if it's, you know, whatever your belief is, you pray for the people that are helping you. You know, you pray for them too. And as a doctor, I realized that, you know, I can only do so much.

You know, I can only, you know, I don't have the power to, you know, make, to, to prevent bad outcomes, but what I can do is do my best to be prepared for them. And so I, so this whole birthing experience me as a patient and it's kind of. Like really consolidating, you know, for me, you know what I'm here for.

I'm here to help people and usher them to good health, you know, with making informed, educated decisions. And as a patient, you know, I learned to pray for my staff. Pray for the people that are, is helping me in my son. So thank you for having me, Heidi and I will be happy to come back. Excellent. Now, where do we find you on Instagram and on Facebook?

And Instagram is my most active form. Cause I, you know, especially I take about three days at most to answer questions. So Instagram handle is at dr. Kendra M D. And that's the same for my Facebook. So everything is, you know, dr. Kendra MD and that's also, um, for my website as well. Perfect. We'll send you some new followers.

Thank you so much, dr. Kendra, have a wonderful day. You too. Thank you so much, Heidi. Talk to you soon. Okay. Bye. Bye.

Thank you for listening to birth story, Michael, if you will walk away from each episode with a clear picture of how labor and delivery might go and that you will feel empowered by the end of your pregnancy to speak up plan and prepare for the birth you want, no matter what that looks like.