Failure -‘it happened to me but I have taken it in stride…’

‘I can now confirm that there is no form of contraceptive that is 100% safe,’says Mercy Maingi, who got pregnant while using a coil. She shares her experience with Pregnant Staff Writer Emma Odaba

SHE had used the coil for one and a half years after getting her last baby when she started feeling sickly.’ Narrated Mercy, pensively: ‘I have problems with hormone-based contraceptives; that is why I chose the coil. Hormone pills make me develop varicose veins*. When I started feeling sick, I thought I had malaria. I could not put a finger on what I was suffering from or where I was ailing. I just knew I was unwell. I went to the hospital where I underwent a malaria test.’

The results came out negative; Mercy did not have malaria. Her doctor ordered for many other tests to ascertain the cause of her illness. ‘Each test indicated I was fine,’ she adds. ‘During the week before the tests I was constantly out of breath. So the doctor also requested for an ECG** examination to rule out a heart problem. I spent about nine thousand Kenya shillings on the tests, only for the results to show that I was fine!’

The doctor told Mercy that she would require more extensive tests. Before undergoing these tests, however, the doctor asked Mercy when she had her last period. ‘I cannot remember, but it is almost a month ago,’ Mercy recalls telling the doctor.

‘The doctor advised me to undertake a pregnancy test. I told her I was using a coil, but she insisted, ‘I am not saying you are pregnant, but we need to do it before getting into any other tests. We must rule out pregnancy.’ She was persistent and it turned out positive!’

‘I had never imagined that the coil would backfire on me; I was so comfortable with my two baby boys, I almost broke down at the clinic—nearly collapsed! I never thought of having another child. My first-born is six-and-a-half while my second boy is two-and-a-half years old. How could I be pregnant? I was using a reliable contraceptive. My husband too could not believe it. Even the doctor looked taken aback, but she told me that every contraceptive has a failure rate and the coil is no exception.’

Mercy continues: ‘Before getting my first baby, I had used the coil for five years and only got pregnant when it was removed. I therefore placed a lot of trust on the coil. My doctor, seeing my doubts and apprehension, referred me to a gynaecologist.’

The gynaecologist only confirmed the doctor’s verdict. Mercy was pregnant with a coil—to be precise, seven weeks pregnant. ‘It was hard, I actually accepted my pregnancy after three months. I was still hoping the test results were an error.’

‘An ultrasound scan was done in order to determine the position of both the baby and the coil,’ narrates Mercy. The scan luckily indicated that the foetus was far from the coil. The gynaecologist advised her that swift action needed to be taken immediately. The coil would have to be removed.

‘The doctor first counselled me about the whole experience. He explained that having a coil while pregnant could lead to a miscarriage while the process of removing the coil may cause an abortion, (talk of between a rock and a hard stone). So I was prepared.’

When the gynaecologist tried to remove the coil, he said it was ‘embedded’ in the cervical canal. ‘He had to remove the coil with a surgical instrument called alligator forceps***,’ Mercy explains. ‘It was a painless but uncomfortable process that lasted around 30 to 45 minutes and was done while I watched. No anaesthesia was required. He managed to remove the coil safely.’

After the procedure, Mercy was instructed by the doctor to take two weeks of bed rest. ‘I also got a prescription for some hormone tablets which the doctor explained were to ensure my body did not reject the foetus because of the coil’s removal. He warned me that i might get contractions and possibly bleed for a while. Thank God none of these after-effects occurred.’

When Mercy went for a follow-up ultrasound scan, it showed that the baby was strong and doing well. Recently she underwent yet another ultrasound scan after a foetal heart-rate scare. ‘That was just last week,’ she narrates. ‘I couldn’t feel my baby’s movements very well. On that particular day I was feeling very stressed. I think for this reason I panicked. When I saw the doctor, he told me that I had to take it easy. The baby was okay.’

Mercy had wanted to know the baby’s sex during this ultrasound scan. ‘But when I asked about it, the nurse told me that it was hard to tell because of the baby’s position.’ She smiles and explains, ‘Before the scan the nurse had asked me whether I have any other children and I said yes. Then she asked their sex and I told her I have two boys. Maybe the scan showed a boy and she thought if I she told me I would become depressed!’

Mercy concedes that she would like to have a girl this time, but confesses to having come to like boys. ‘I think once you get used to a certain lifestyle with boys you may find it difficult to adjust to a girl. Boys are not complicated; if it’s their hair, it costs only twenty bob for a cut!’

Before her EDD, which is around September 5, Mercy says she will have one more ultrasound scan, hopefully the last. She expounds why: According to the last ultrasound scan, the doctor noticed that I have a low-lying placenta. This means it is on the cervix, which I was told could lead to post-partum haemorrhage.

For this reason, I have to have another scan at 36 weeks. If the placenta does not move upwards to its correct position by that time I will have to deliver by Caesarean which I do not wish for.
This however has nothing to do with the coil. ‘I had the same problem with my first pregnancy, but the placenta adjusted by the time I was due to deliver. I had a normal delivery.’

Will she continue using the coil or chance another baby after this one? ‘No!’ is her emphatic response. ‘After this, I am going for tubal ligation! I cannot afford another baby! Three are enough. The only solution for me is a TL.

Definition of some terms used used by mercy during the interview.
*Varicose veins are abnormally distended and tortuous blood vessels, which are sometimes painful, Usually found on the backside of the legs. They arise from an inefficient blood system where some bloods flows backward because of damaged venous valves or the hormone progesterone relaxes the walls of the veins during pregnancy. They usually affect the the superficial veins of the skin.

**ECC(electrocardiogram) is the examination of the heart’s action (heart rate, strength of the heartbeat,etc.)done by attaching sensors to the body. The sensors send electrical waves to a computer, which prints (traces) the activity of the heart on a graph. The doctor interprets the graph to determine whether the heart’s actions are normal or not.

***Forceps are instruments with two blades used for lifting or compressing an object. The handles resemble those of scissors. There are many types of forceps, depending on the shape of the blades.

END: PG8/5-6

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