Sharonda

Several months of bed rest and a month in the hospital? Few women would welcome that prescription, especially the mother of 1- and 3-year-old boys.

But Sharonda knew she had to follow her doctor's advice so she could take her pregnancy almost to term. She has cervical insufficiency, also known as cervical incompetence, a condition in which the cervix dilates without contractions or pain. In some instances, it opens completely.

The diagnosis put Sharonda in a high-risk category for her pregnancy, given that women who go untreated cannot hold the weight of a pregnancy long enough for the baby to be able to survive outside of the uterus. Cervical incompetence occurs in about 1 percent of all pregnancies and accounts for about 15 to 20 percent of all pregnancy losses during the second trimester.

Luckily for Sharonda, she was being treated at the University of Michigan Health System, where the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology is well versed in treating high-risk pregnancies.

For her first two pregnancies, Sharonda was treated with a cervical cerclage, a surgical procedure used to keep the cervix closed during pregnancy. But when Sharonda and her doctor discussed her options for her third pregnancy, they weighed the pros and cons of surgery versus bed rest. And since it was not clear that the cervical cerclage was needed this time, strict bed rest made the most sense.

Sharonda's doctor said she was a trouper for following her difficult treatment plan to a T. But Sharonda said she couldn't have survived without the help of the U-M nursing staff.

“They took really good care of me,” Sharonda says. “And we had some good times. They tried really hard to make me happy to be here. They talked to me, fixed special drinks for my roommate and me, ordered carry-out food for us if we wanted. And one nurse who worked weekends would push me all around the hospital in a wheelchair.”

Sharonda reached her goal of carrying her baby to 30 weeks, and was richly rewarded when she delivered a baby girl via C-section. Baby Shabriya is happy and healthy, thanks to the care Sharonda received at the University Hospital.