[caption id="attachment_1816" align="alignright" width="150"]<a href="http://www.hormonesoup.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Baby-Teaching-1.jpg"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-1816" alt="Baby Teaching ABCs image: Dreamstime" src="http://www.hormonesoup.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Baby-Teaching-1-150x100.jpg" width="150" height="100" /></a> Baby Teaching ABCs      image: Dreamstime[/caption]

I will never forget waiting for the hospital elevator with my brand-spankin’ new baby in her bucket seat. It took me an hour to dress her in her new going home outfit. I was beaming with that same sense of pride that all of us new moms share.  In fact I savored that same feeling of wonderment when I prepared to take my second and third babies home from the hospital.

But there was something different about waiting for the elevator that first time because I actually couldn’t believe I was getting to take a baby home – a real-live baby!  This crazy feeling came over me - a sudden realization that after battling infertility and two miscarriages I finally had a baby!  My other visits to the hospital had ended in sadness as I learned of my miscarriages or got discharged from the maternity ward with baby-less, empty arms. This time though was different.  I could hardly believe that I was just standing at the elevator about to take this wee infant out the door and no one was stopping me, it was really <i>my</i> baby! A surreal experience indeed. I have often wondered about other women who live through infertility and miscarriages – did they have the same sense of awe at leaving the hospital with a baby?

Every woman who has had a miscarriage lives with an extra dose of fear in her while she’s pregnant.  I had that same fear and after two miscarriages I began to advocate for myself.  I learned about my reproductive cycle and learned to understand my own body. I was embarrassed at how little I knew!  Sex ed in health class may have covered this stuff but I don't remember it.  Eventually, through research and getting to know my cycles I began to suspect that I didn’t produce enough progesterone each month.  I also learned that in pregnancy a woman’s body becomes a progesterone-making machine, which is when I began to suspect that my progesterone factory was broken.  I faced my third pregnancy with knowledge and challenged my doctor’s suggestion to try a third time before we delve further into my reproductive health problems. I told my doctor that I wanted to take natural progesterone supplements during my pregnancy.  I was hopeful but I wasn’t a believer quite yet, and neither was my doctor. He gave me the progesterone but told me that it was a placebo effect.  But what if I was wrong?  The weight of a successful pregnancy seemed to weigh more heavily on me.

So as I stood waiting for the elevator that day with my newborn baby something else happened for me, but I wouldn’t think about it until much later.  That was the day I became a true believer in advocating for my own health.  It would be many years and ups and downs before I truly understood the significance bio-identical hormones would play in my life and the role I would have to take in my own health, but that day; that beautiful, wonderful, life-changing day that I got to take my baby home was the day I learned the power of Advocating for my own health, Bio-identical Hormones and Challenging the status-quo. My newborn baby had just taught me my ABC’s.

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<td><span style="font-size: medium;">To read more of my related blog posts about Miscarriage &amp; Advocacy:</span>

<span style="font-size: medium;"><a title="It Doesn’t Always Take a Crystal Ball: My Explainable Miscarriages" href="http://www.hormonesoup.com/it-doesnt-always-take-a-crystal-ball-my-explainable-miscarriages/" target="_blank">It Doesn't Take a Crystal Ball: My Explainable Miscarriages</a></span>

<span style="font-size: medium;"><a title="Farewell Dear Ava" href="http://www.hormonesoup.com/farewell-dear-ava/" target="_blank">Farewell Dear Ava</a></span>

<span style="font-size: medium;"><a title="Missing our Miscarried Babies" href="http://www.hormonesoup.com/missing-our-miscarried-babies/" target="_blank">Missing our Miscarried Babies</a></span>

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<p style="text-align: center;"><em style="text-align: center; background-color: #f4f4f4; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: small;">
This article was originally published as a guest blog post on <a title="Dr. Greene" href="http://www.drgreene.com/" target="_blank">DrGreene.com </a>
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