Did Sarah Palin Want Her Baby To Die?
As we find out more about Sarah Palin, John McCain's choice for running mate, more questions are raised than are answered.
The most disturbing question is one that has not been properly addressed. Sarah Palin's actions in April while in Texas to attend a conference were not only dangerous to herself, but could have jeopardized her baby's life. It raises serious questions about Palin's judgment and her motives, and should eliminate her from running for vice president.
The full story
Palin concealed her pregnancy until March, 2008, when she was 7 months pregnant. We're not going to get into the rumors that her son Trig is really her daughter's baby. New photos of Palin in March and April certainly look like a pregnant woman.
The real story isn't if Trig is actually Palin's grandson, which he isn't, it's the dangerous and careless behavior Palin engaged in during her labor.
We know that before Palin's son Trig was born that he had been prenatally diagnosed with having Down Syndrome.
In April, 2008, about one month before Trig's projected due date, Palin traveled to Texas to attend the Republican Governors Association Energy Conference. Palin was scheduled to speak at the conference.
According to Palin, she experienced signs of early labor around 4 AM Texas time and called her doctor back in Alaska. Instead of going to a local hospital, as every other woman on the planet with medical care available would do, Palin told her doctor she was staying in Texas to give a 30 minute speech at the conference luncheon later that afternoon.
"I said I am going to stay for the day. I have a speech I was determined to give," Palin said.
The Anchorage Daily News (ADN) reported: "Palin said she felt fine but had leaked amniotic fluid and also felt some contractions that seemed different from the false labor she had been having for months."
ADN talked with Dr. Laurie Gregg, a California obstetrician who is active in the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, who said when a pregnant woman's water breaks, "she should go right to the hospital because of the risk of infection. That's true even if the amniotic fluid simply leaks out."
Is there a difference between water breaking and amniotic fluid leaking?
"To us, leaking and broken, we are talking the same thing. We are talking doctor-speak," Gregg said."
After the speech, instead of going to a hospital, Palin left for the airport, where she boarded a plane to Seattle.
Alaskan Airlines does not have a policy against pregnant women flying. However, there's a question of whether Palin hid her medical situation from the airlines, who would most certainly would not allow a woman in labor to fly. Merely being pregnant and actually being in labor are two different issues.
Risks to Baby Trig
The risk of infection to the baby and/or mother while amniotic fluid is leaking is high. Furthermore, by deciding to travel for 15 hours while her amniotic fluid was leaking posed even greater threats to the baby if the amniotic fluid level became too low. If that happens there's nothing a flight crew on an airplane can do to help the mother or the baby.
Complications from low levels of amniotic fluid can be dangerous and even fatal. "Babies with too little amniotic fluid can develop contractures of the limbs, clubbing of the feet and hands, and also develop a life threatening condition called hypoplastic lungs. If a baby is born with hypoplastic lungs, which are small underdeveloped lungs, this condition is potentially fatal and the baby can die shortly after birth."
Low amniotic fluid levels, called oligohydramnios, is also associated with Potter's Syndrome, an almost 100% fatal condition.
After taking the 4 hour and 13 minute flight from Dallas to Seattle, Palin again avoided medical care as she boarded another plane to Anchorage for a 3 hour flight.
Palin said it was OK because she was touching base with her doctor in between flights.
Her plane landed in Alaska approximately 10:30 PM, over 15 hours after early signs of labor began (Anchorage is 3 hours behind Dallas time).
From the moment her water broke at 4 AM Thursday (Central Time) until she gave birth at 6:30 AM Friday (Alaskan Time), almost 24 hours later, Palin flew over 3,000 miles, was in 3 states, while in early labor, after she started leaking amniotic fluid.
To put that in perspective, a flight from New York City to London is just over 3,000 miles. A flight from NYC to LA is under 2,500 miles.
What Where Sarah Palin's Motives?
What were Palin's motives for the extended trip while in labor? Did she really want her baby to be born in Alaska so desperately that she was willing to put him in great harm? Or was she being careless in hope that she might lose the baby and not have to raise a special needs child?
Palin says she simply wanted her son born in Alaska, but wouldn't have risked anyone's health to make that happen.
Sarah's husband Todd may have had a role as well.
"You can't have a fish picker from Texas," he said.
Trig has Down Syndrome, he's not going to live a normal life and be a fisherman, and Todd certainly knows that.
Regardless of their intentions, the Palin's did put Trig in harm's way. They already knew this was a special needs child, and that complications could arise during delivery.
But the couple put off medical care for 15 hours. During that time, Sarah Palin got ready for a conference, likely listened through several hours of other speakers, then casually gave a speech to a group of other Republican Governors during a luncheon. She casually drove to the airport to begin a 3,000 mile journey. She didn't mention to the airlines she was in labor, or that her water had burst. She switched planes in Seattle, and then made the long journey to Alaska, then drove over 40 miles to Mat-Su Hospital outside Anchorage.
That doesn't sound like a loving, caring mother. That sounds like a mother that didn't want her baby.
The next time your wife goes into labor, ask her if she wants to take a 3,000 mile journey instead of going to the hospital.
If Palin were not a Governor, and her baby had died from her negligence, it's entirely possible, and perhaps even likely, Palin would have been charged with a crime. Instead, Palin is running for vice president.
2 comments:
We did not support McCain/Palin. However, I am a huge supporter of a woman being in charge of her own body. Mrs. Palin knew her body and what it was capable of, obviously. Fluid leaking does put a woman at increased risk of infection---in a hospital setting where there are an abundance of bacteria and germs. Outside of a hospital, it is ridiculous to suggest that a woman is at increased risk simply because she's experiencing some fluid leakage.
Furthermore, I believe that women rushing to hospitals in early labor causes more problems than it prevents. The infant mortality rate of newborn babies in the US is needlessly high. The over-use of hospital interventions and the fact that pregnancy is treated like an emergency or disease is what gives us all the impression that childbirth is dangerous. Women need to learn to know and trust their own bodies.
Saying that leaking fluid requires immediate hospitalization is like saying a bloody nose requires a transfusion! A near-term woman can leak urine which looks like amniotic fluid and because of the baby compressing the bladder and the urethra it may not feel like a urine leak. Also, water doesn't always break like a balloon bursting but can dribble out it fits and spurts for hours while a woman suffers through cramp-like contractions for hours, even days. The doctor will finally artificially break the amniotic sac as a way of inducing labor. Failing that to move things along, drugs are used.
Since you are not Palin's doctor or a member of her staff or family she spoke to, you have no idea how vigorous her leak was. From what I've read, she didn't excuse herself to go to the restroom during that gathering. I think it's fair to say that leak wasn't enough to fill a sanitary napkin in that time. That would make her leak more of a slow drip. If she was losing fluid that slowly there was no iminent danger to her or her baby. If she wasn't actively having contractions she wasn't in labor and there was no reason she couldn't fly home.
I had a friend who flew back to Tulsa, OK from China then drove two hours home to Missouri. She went home, showered and changed then packed her bag to go to the hospital and STILL was almost two more days having her baby. Her doctor advised her to catch the next flight home because she had intermitent leaking but not to panic, even if she had the odd contraction, because she wasn't in danger of having the baby in the nexy 24 hours. So it's possible Palin's doctor Okayed her schedule.
Post a Comment