COMING TO TERM by Jon Cohen

If you have had recurrent miscarriages you may want to get the book COMING TO TERM by Jon Cohen... I got it last night and it is fascinating... It is a reporter's look at WHY women miscarry. Thank you Erin D. for bringing it to my attention and thinking of me when you saw Jon Cohen on the news talking about recurrent miscarriage. See how GREAT our online Blogland community can be???

You may get a little frustrated as you read... It gives you hope because it kind of de-bunks a lot of doctor-talk... and basically kind of comes up with... THEY JUST DON'T KNOW...

It gives a LOT of research history of common theories such as luteal phase deficiency and clotting disorders and the research is very surprising... Basically... there is no REAL data that says this stuff like progesterone and heparin injections REALLY help... but there is also no research that can prove that it doesn't... He calls these methods "Black Swans" because of the rare birds that does actually exist... but sounds fictional. COMING TO TERM helps to explain why there is such a wide range of view points by our doctors about using these medications and why one doctor may present these methods as "cures" and another may be resistant to using any medication at all.

It also talks about how recurrent miscarriers often end up at fertility clinics searching for answers... (because there is no where else for us to seek treatment...) and that many are pushed towards IUI and IVF when "conceiving " is not actually their problem... this is why I related so much to this book....

This is not the "happy" read that will give you all the answers and promise that "next time" everything will be ok that we all want, but is does give you quiet hope. It makes you feel that you are not alone in your struggle and it may help you begin to understand what the hell your doctor is talking about....

This statistic is fueling my hope:
"Recurrent spontaneous aborters (3 or more m/c in a row) who become pregnant again, will with no medical treatment, carry to term 70%of the time." (page 14)

This is by no means the "relax and do nothing" type of advice... but is does want you to know that miscarriage IS still very much a medical mystery... So, when you start to fell like your (very expensive) doctors are "just guessing"... they really sort of are.

I would love to sort of start a "book club" with anyone else reading this book... Let me know if you are interested...