Meet Miles

• Baby Saves

• 03.12.26

“At 22 weeks, I was diagnosed with placenta previa and knew I was high-risk, likely facing an early cesarean section. At 27 weeks, we learned our son was severely growth restricted due to placental insufficiency, measuring under the first percentile. It was terrifying and we had no idea what to expect. 

Our provider emphasized closely monitoring fetal movement alongside frequent Dopplers and ultrasounds and recommended the Count the Kicks app.

One Sunday when I was around 29 weeks, I noticed he had barely moved and couldn’t log 10 movements after trying for hours. I went straight to triage. After two hours of monitoring and detailed ultrasounds, doctors found a combination of serious complications. They found a combination of serious complications: increased cord resistance, a short cervix (already 1 cm dilated), and vasa previa. I was admitted to antepartum immediately for continuous monitoring and told I wouldn’t leave until delivery.

I’m so grateful this happened because I went into spontaneous labor at 32 weeks, and the team needed to perform an emergency cesarean section. We spent eight weeks in the NICU because he was so small, but now at 4.5 months corrected, he’s thriving! 

If I hadn’t been tracking his kicks and using your app, I wouldn’t have gone to triage that day and the vasa previa diagnosis may have been missed before 32 weeks. I was also told by my Maternal Fetal Medicine team that vasa has a 5% survival rate for babies who are not within 5 minutes of an operating room. The combination of vasa previa, a short cervix, increased cord resistance with reduced blood flow, and severe IUGR meant Miles had a very low chance of survival if we weren’t within minutes of the operating room. I truly don’t know where we’d be today without the world-class team at California Pacific Medical Center and my knowledge of fetal movement monitoring. 

I knew something was off most of my pregnancy, especially when it came to his size. I can’t fully explain it, but I just knew. A few weeks before we even found out Miles was growth restricted and his cord flow was sub-optimal, I remember saying to my husband, ‘There’s something wrong, this baby is really small.’

There were moments when I tried to shake the feeling and told myself I was just being an anxious first-time mom. But I’m so glad I didn’t. I’m so glad I listened to my motherly intuition and armed myself with the knowledge I needed about fetal movements. I’m so glad a provider told me about Count the Kicks. I’m so glad I counted his kicks and went to triage that night. And I’m so glad that visit prompted a deeper investigation. 

I truly don’t think I would be staring at my beautiful baby boy today if that series of events hadn’t unfolded exactly the way it did. Please, please, please call your doctor if you think something is off. You are never wasting anyone’s time and you are your baby’s only advocate.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart for the work you do to save babies!” -Lois C., Mile’s Mom