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.

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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! It was a surreal experience. 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?

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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! I suspected from my research and getting to know my cycles 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. So what if I was wrong, the weight of a successful pregnancy seemed to weigh more heavily on me.

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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.