but please bear with me. Your comments in the pre-conception thread about heartrate, core temp, and birth defects has got me all emotional. I have two daughters with cleft lip/gum/palate. I have never been one to wonder WHY, I mean my goodness I have so much to be thankful for and we have a good life and they are so precious you wouldn't even believe it and I am so blessed. The thing that struck me was when you said that the core temp thing can cause neural tube defects. As you probably know, clefting and spina bifida have causal links in common because they are similar defects, only in one case you don't get fusion in BACK, which exposes the spine and causes all that trouble, and in one case you don't get fusion in the FRONT, which causes cleft lip/gum/palate and all the sinus involvement that can go along with that. For instance, both types of defects happen in weeks 4-7 of pregnancy, and both can be caused by folic acid deficiency, etc. So NOW, I'm wondering if getting my core temp too high during exercise might have been the problem??? I know it's stupid to even go there because it could've been anything, including the fact that I have luteal phase defect, and don't produce enough progesterone, so the poor kids were progesterone-deficient at first as well. Do you know anything about whether or not THAT can cause clefting?
I guess since you know so much about preconceptual counselling, I am hoping that you might know something about things that might cause cleft palate. Because the only thing I really KNOW about is the folic acid thing, which wasn't an issue for me since I take a multivitamin ALL the time and of course prenatals when I'm pregnant. . . But I've always wondered about the progesterone thing. . . and until now had never heard of the core temp issue (at least, not as regards these types of birth defects). Any info you have would be appreciated. And don't worry, I'm not going to kick myself around the block about anything, because I'm a firm believer in the fact that God is in control. If I'm going to wonder WHY about anything, it's going to be "WHY am I so blessed? Why am I so lucky??" because I truly think I am. But still, sometimes a mom's just gotta get emotional, you know?
(or , not quite sure which, is there am emoticon for feeling all conflicted?)
(btw, a friend of a friend just had a clefted baby Friday, and the friend in the middle connected us so I could talk to this new mom, which of course brings back memories, which is probably why I am being so weird about this today. . . Really I am just NOT usually like this!)
I guess since you know so much about preconceptual counselling, I am hoping that you might know something about things that might cause cleft palate. Because the only thing I really KNOW about is the folic acid thing, which wasn't an issue for me since I take a multivitamin ALL the time and of course prenatals when I'm pregnant. . . But I've always wondered about the progesterone thing. . . and until now had never heard of the core temp issue (at least, not as regards these types of birth defects). Any info you have would be appreciated. And don't worry, I'm not going to kick myself around the block about anything, because I'm a firm believer in the fact that God is in control. If I'm going to wonder WHY about anything, it's going to be "WHY am I so blessed? Why am I so lucky??" because I truly think I am. But still, sometimes a mom's just gotta get emotional, you know?
(or , not quite sure which, is there am emoticon for feeling all conflicted?)(btw, a friend of a friend just had a clefted baby Friday, and the friend in the middle connected us so I could talk to this new mom, which of course brings back memories, which is probably why I am being so weird about this today. . . Really I am just NOT usually like this!)