Pregnancy and Chronic Inflammation
A five-part mini-series
Previously on IC…
Last week, we opened our 5-part mini-series with Elyse sharing with us the profound challenges of chronic pain during pregnancy, particularly when facing medical incomprehension. She told us about a very useful hormone called relaxin that can bring havoc to a pregnant body; ironic name.
She “was left on [her] own to figure it out.” However, she also told us it’s not all bleak and pain, that benevolent strangers, friends and family come forward to help.
I learned that I had amazing people to lean onto.
This is what the our community hopes to be with this series, a community to lean onto.
Elyse also gave us her tips to make things less painful and not without humour; we loved “You are now living like a mermaid.”
So, what’s next?
In “The Air That I Breathe and My Baby’s First Cry”, Serena recounts how she embraced pregnancy like a breeze before her asthma worryingly caught up with her.
Charlotte reflects on a non-event; a surrogacy that did not happen—or was it that it could not or would not happen? She cannot decide how her disabilities weighted in. In “Carrying and Caring, Baked In?”, she questions stereotypes and prejudices, including hers, of conception, family and the medical profession’s role in and around pregnancy.
Natasha, our founder, starts off her pregnancy journey as a rheumatology patient, laced with intersections of sex and race, “In Choosing Motherhood: Chronic Pain, Fertility and The Unknown.”
Finally, the series will conclude with a reassuring conversation with Lili, OB/Gyn doctor. Yes, some doctors want to listen to us and do want us to have good pregnancies and healthy babies!
Stay tuned!
The InflamMed Team