Meet Matthew

• Baby Saves

• 11.26.19

“When I was pregnant with my second son, now 3 1/2, I noticed that he was just as active as his big brother during the evenings. The day I reached 38 weeks, however, I spent the day ‘nesting’ in anticipation of our planned C-section, and when I sat down that night, I noticed that he wasn’t moving very much. I tried eating some strawberry jelly from the jar (which I was happy to have an excuse to do, haha) and lying on my side, but it didn’t help. I went to bed around midnight, but not before texting my OB. I’d just crawled into the sack when he replied ‘Go to the hospital.’ We weren’t taking any chances, so I packed my bags and left right then.

When I got to labor and delivery (about 1:30 a.m.), my OB wasn’t on rotation, so the nurses put me on the monitor and everything seemed fine. I had a cervix check and, later, an ultrasound, and everything seemed OK. The staff were telling me that I could go home, but I said I wanted to wait for my own doctor. He came in around 9 a.m. and said ‘I don’t like this, and you’re not going to either. I don’t want you to go home and worry about the decreased movement for three days until it’s time for your C-section. Can we just do this now?’ I trust him, so of course I said yes!

Matthew Gary was born later that morning, perfectly healthy, but with the cord wrapped around his neck AND a true knot in his cord. The whole operating room collectively gasped when he came out and we saw all that. My OB told me ‘Thank God you came in today. Always trust a mother’s intuition.’ Thank you to Count the Kicks for spreading awareness! It’s hard to know how many lives you’ve saved!” -Jody M., Matthew’s mom