Medical Info on Babies and pregnancy for my novel

Mutley

McB or any other knowledgeable people out there please can you help?

For my novel I need 2 separate or linked things:

1. A reason why a pregnant mother may be advised not to have more children (i.e. a medical problem that makes a second pregnancy dangerous to mother or baby)

2. the most common cause of a baby dying at the age of between 3 & 4 months. I am not looking for an outlandish condition, as it is incidental (very important but not the story itself) to the plot.

Any help would be much appreciated.

I also need to write the emotional side of parents losing a young child. If anyone has any thoughts on this it would be very helpful. To be honest I can draw some of it from having to come to terms with not being able to have children myself, but that can never be the same as going through the trauma of losing a baby. (Davaaris don't read the next bit it will give some of the plot away!) To give some background it leaves the mother a little unbalanced and leads to her abducting a child so for good measure if anyone has any experience of child abduction (in 1978 - for the legal bods among you) it would also be helpful.

Thanks
Rosemary.

Jay Mandal

Diabetes? The thing beginning with e which affects blood pressure?

Jay Mandal

Cot death?

Neph

Not sure but Placenta Previa is also one that might make them say not to have more children, or at least be wary.

Cot death is possibly the best one for death at 3-4months.

Jay Mandal

Pre-eclampsia is what I was thinking of.

Any genetic problems.

flyingtart

Rhesus incompatibility is one I've heard of. Here is a link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/ask_the_doctor/pregnancyrhesus.shtml

Cot death or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is not uncommon at that age. I know two people who lost babies at that age. Here is a link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A629237

Carol

I will e-mail you some of the emotional elements about losing a baby- although my son Zack was stillborn, many of the emotions are the same.

Have a look at the item in the Daily Mail about Edith Bowman- she has just had her first child despite being advised against pregnancy- think she may have some heart condition, pregnancy puts an immense strain on the heart. I'd be very surprised if she hadn't been advised not to have another child.

If I can find the original BBC link when it was anounced she was pregnant, I'll post it here.

Liz

The clash of blood thing is good- my friend didn't knew she was rhesus negative and her husband was rhesus positive, and for some reason or other the first baby's blood crossed the placenta actually during the pregnancy, and she made antibodies, and her baby was born extremely anaemic -so the next baby had to have blood transfusions in the womb. She is a Dr so could tell me any thing which might have made it more dangerous if you want me to find out for you.

Carol

Couldn't find the item I remember seeing, so it may have been on another website- or even another celebrity. But it would still be a relevent situation.

Mutley

LizB thank you. Once I've worked out what else I need I will come back to you if I need other info from your friend. Thank you very much for your help.

Carol

E-mail sent Mutley- don't read it until tomorrow.

Mutley

Thanks Carol. I'll take that advice, thank you.