Pregnant woman fears birth complications posts ‘living will’ on TikTok

CNN
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Ashley Martinez has four sons and is pregnant with her long-desired daughter.

last month, she posted a video online If she develops a complication during labor and it comes down to that choice, she pleads with the doctor to prioritize her life over the life of her unborn baby.

The San Antonio, Texas resident, who is due in May, is one of many pregnant people who recently posted a “Living Will” video on TikTok.

Martinez had an emergency caesarean section during her last pregnancy when the umbilical cord came out before the baby.Known to be a rare but dangerous condition As umbilical cord prolapse It can deprive your baby of vital blood flow and oxygen.

Martinez described her final delivery as horrifying. He said he was worried about what would happen if he faced the problem of

Abortion has been outlawed in many US states since the June ruling, raising concerns that doctors will prioritize the life of a fetus in an emergency.

Martinez lost her mother to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma when she was young and is horrified to think that her children will experience a similar tragedy.

“It’s scary for me to have to go to another delivery for a C-section,” said the 29-year-old woman. “My fourth pregnancy was my only C-section. I always thought I wasn’t here for my kids just because I grew up without a mother.”

Dozens of U.S. states have banned or severely restricted access to an abortion following a Supreme Court decision eight months ago. The ban on abortion Legal Confusion as an Advocate fight in court.

Still, several gynecologists told CNN that the difficult choices outlined in the TikTok video to save the lives of mothers and babies during childbirth are highly unlikely.

The trend on TikTok has sparked a surge in dueling videos between pregnant women and other people. Doctors in such situations are told to prioritize the fetus, and some post videos criticizing doctors for expressing differing opinions.

Martinez admits that her mother, who died at age 25, likely chose to save her child in the first place if she could.

“My mother, she didn’t have a choice, did she?” Martinez said. “The message I want to convey is basically that no one is wrong or right in this situation. In either situation, choosing a child over a fetus is a difficult decision.”

The state of Texas, where Martinez lives, bans abortions at all stages of pregnancy unless there is a life-threatening medical emergency.

Dr. Franziska Haydanek, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Rochester, N.Y., who shares medical advice on TikTok, said she’s noticed a number of “living will” videos in recent months.

Most of the videos feature women with messages such as, “If you have complications during childbirth, please save me before the baby.” Some, including Martinez, even mention their children in their decisions and even show them in videos.

one Posted by Toscana GuntherI am a 22 year old female due to give birth in April. Abortions after her 20th week of pregnancy are illegal in her home state of North Carolina, and Ms. Gunter told CNN she would choose herself first. said that he took a picture of her message.

Gunter, who lives in Fayetteville, said: “I wanted to take a stand and stand up to other women who are being bashed online for saying they’d rather be saved than their babies. I did,” he said.

“As a mother of three young children, I cannot inflict the emotional trauma of losing a mother on them as children and expect them to deal with it. Ginger, we also need to think about our other living children…and we know that the babies who die will be safe without experiencing any pain or grief.

Another woman, Leslie Tovar of Portland, Oregon, No legal restrictions About abortion, she posted her video Because she feared that doctors would prioritize saving the unborn child to avoid legal repercussions after Roe v. Wade.

“I have two other children at home who need a mother. I can’t stand the thought of my two sons, ages 6 and 4, without their mother,” she said.

All three women said they had such conversations with their partners, who agreed that they should be saved first.

About her husband, Tovar said:

Medical experts said it is true that complications occur during pregnancy and doctors recommend delivery to save the mother’s life.

If this is done before the fetus is viable (less than 24 weeks), the baby is unlikely to survive, says Elizabeth Langen, M.D., maternal-fetal medicine physician at the University of Michigan von Woiglander Women’s Hospital. .

With the Roe v. Wade decision overturned, terminating such pregnancies has become more complicated, Langen and Haydanek say.

When a non-viable baby is involved, it means that even if the baby is unlikely to survive and the mother’s health is in jeopardy, saving the baby is a priority for fear of legal repercussions. there is a possibility.

But both doctors say those scenarios don’t occur during the birth of a viable baby.

“We are doing everything we can to save both (mother and baby),” she said. “I cannot think of a time when the medical team had to make a decision about which of the viable labor patients to save. I’m sorry.”

Hospitals have sufficient resources to meet the needs of both mothers and babies, including obstetric and neonatal intensive care unit teams, Haidaneck and Langen said.

“We generally do our best to take care of mothers and babies, and there are very few situations where mothers are harmed for the benefit of their babies,” Langen added.

“If the mother’s health is declining, she will eventually not be able to support the health of the baby,” says Langen. “And in general, what we encourage people to do is really support maternal health because it’s in the best interest of both mother and baby.”

Both doctors encourage patients to talk to their health care providers about their medical concerns and have a “living will” with their loved ones in case complications arise during labor that require their partners to make medical decisions. He said it is important to share wishes.

But those decisions don’t include doctors asking your partner whose life should take precedence, they said.

Calling the TikTok trend “horrifyingly anxiety-inducing,” Hajdanek said, “Before you quarrel with your partner about who to save, know that there is no situation in which we ask our partner to do that.

She said it’s been talked about many times in recent months She made a TikTok video of herself to reassure her expectant parents.

“Don’t feel like you have to make this choice,” she says in the video. It’s not a situation to find.”