Gastroschisis(gas.tros.chi.sis) Support and Resources

I am a bit wary of posting this find without researching it in further detail but findings published by the Cornucopia Institute via Facebook who in turn sourced their information through membership to the Society of Maternal Fetal Medicine have apparently found a link between Atrazine and Gastroschisis.

“Researchers at the University of Washington (Seattle), were alerted to a higher than normal number of cases in Eastern Washington which caused them to hypothesize that the increased incidence could be due to environmental exposures in that area.”

The article continues:-

“Of the 805 cases and 3616 controls in the study, gastroschisis occurred more frequently among infants whose mothers resided less than 25 km from the site of high surface water contamination with atrazine. No risk was associated with the other chemicals reviewed in the study. The risk of gastroschisis also increased for women who conceived in the spring (March through May), when chemical use is more prevalent.”

Source

What is Atrazine?

First research via a wiki page states that it is widely used herbicide pesticide in the USA but banned in the European Union.

Quote:-

“There are also thought to be implications for human birth defects, low birth weights and menstrual problems.”

Further research on Atrazine

Delving a little deeper into how Atrazine is used i have met a few boundarys via Google Scholar but the snippets alone (Google Scholars results for that searched keyword) are pointing to a variety of uses other than a pesticide, including usage within sewage treatment.

A web search for use of Altrazine usage in the UK returned an article reproduced from Pesticide news: EU Takes Note of Atrazine Research.

A Reuters story covering the development went into further detail.

Registration to SMFM is seemingly restricted to at least entry level medical professionals, but i will attempt to contact SMFM to clarify the findings.

Hi everyone. I just wanted to say DON’T WORRY!

I had my son in Oxford, John Radcliffe hospital on the 13/10/09.

Everything was fine with the delivery. I was told he had gastroschisis at 17 weeks old.

As a 18 year old young women this was very worrying but I give the advice I took form another lady who had gone through this, don’t worry about it… enjoy being pregnant and be proud of the life you’ve created.

Cradle your new bump and just be happy! Don’t ruin it because you will regret it once it’s over!

I live in south wales, newport so you can imagine how worrying it was to be transferred to oxford in labour but I was very glad as they accomidated me for the 4 weeks he stayed there and looked after him and his surgery very well!

I was 36 weeks gone and went into natural labour. I had steroids before hand so he was fine when he came out. He had dilated loops of bowl so I personally thought it was a good thing.

ANYONE who tells you it’s BEST to have a cessarian are WRONG, if you’ve been told you are having a natural birth it will be fine. Everything was fine with me and all the other women I have spoken to who have been throuigh the same thing. Listen to yourself mainly!

He had a large defect which his bowls were placed in a silo and  hung above him and gradually pushed into him. This took 5 days after he was born. He stayed in an incubatorfor that time. He was on TPN, fluids containing fats and protein and alot of morphine and paracetamol.

After the surgery, he was in the high dependency unit on the ventilator for 3 days amongst which his stitches burst open and puss exploded from underneath them exposing muscle which, thankfully was still intact. This was nothing major it just meant it would take a lot longer to heal. He was on even more morphine.

Once he no longer needed the ventilator hes pent the night in intensive care. The day after he went to the childrens ward. He spent a further 3 weeks here in which we spent getting him to eat and to poop. We also had our first hold here.

He had to have a hickman line put in as all his veins had been used up and collapsed. He was on morphine for 3 weeks and got addicted to it. It took him another 5 days to be weaned off it. He suffered from terrible shakes.

Rileigh had jaundice which they were, wrongly, not worried about, from birth.

He was then transferred to Intensive care, Cardiff hospital for 3 days where he had his hickman line taken out and then to the Gwent special care unit for a further week.

We got to finally bring him home but on the day he came home he couldn’t hold milk down and was being sick bial and milk.  He had x-rays on his belly to see if that was the problem but nothing showed. We took him to the Gwent three times before a doctor, Dr.Braxton, realised what it was. He had prolonged jaundice and bial sickness from a liver disfunction.

We were then transferred to Birmingham, diana’s children hospial, where they queried a few different problems and gave him an ultrasound.

Thanks for sticking with me over the 2 and a half years that this site has been running for but i felt i had to move with the times if we are to become a stronger Gastroschisis community hence the brand new social network.

Members new and old can still post stories in the same way, but this social network within the site makes it a lot easier to help each other out, everything that is happening right now you can view through the “activity” link you see there to the right which you can contribute to by either updating your own board or posting to other members. Either way it will show up within the activity page.

All i can really say is play about as much as you like… add a profile pic, your location, comment on other members stories or have a natter through other members profiles.

Thanks

Dean

Brand new support for parents with Gastroschisis babies in Australia!

This is what it is all about, support, a reach out from parents who have experienced the gastroschisis condition first hand and are willing to help others. There is no reason why any of our hundreds of members here can`t occasionally stop by the Gastroschisis Support Group, Australia and help out with a few answers there as well.

Like me April has been inspired to help, so stop by and add your stories to her website too.

Dean

Hi my name is Maria, I am 20 years old.  I first found out that my baby had Gastroschisis when I was about 15 weeks pregnant through my first sonogram.  I was devastated because I had never heard of anything of its nature and I was like how am I going to go home and say this to my mother.  My boyfriend and I were told by the doctor that this was something that was reparable and could be fixed but that if would could not handle it we were free to have an abortion.  My boyfriend immediately told me no.  It is my first baby first pregnancy and I was not about to have an abortion the baby was almost 4 months. When I was about 5 months pregnant they had told me my baby was a boy. We later came to find out that she was a girl.  Through my whole pregnancy I had a Doctor check me regularly the visits started to become more and more regular to make sure everything else was in and nothing was dragged out along with the intestines.  My doctor told me that she would be there with me throughout the whole pregnancy.  Towards the end I found out she would be the one to deliver my baby which made me feel much more confident and calm.  On Saturday, September 19, 2009 I began to have contractions but they were far apart.  I had called my doctor and told her and we joked around and she told me that if the baby would be born that to try and aim for before Sunday morning, I guess the baby heard her and took her advice.  On Sunday, September 20, 2009 I had contractions at about 10 mins apart.  I was anxious and I couldn’t sleep which was not normal being that throughout my whole pregnancy I did not have problems sleeping. Something that was rare and something in me just kept telling me to get up which finally I did.  When I did I called my doctor she told me to get there and when I got there I had lost all my fluids.  I had to have an emergency cesarean.  My daughter was born at 9:36 she weight 5’5 and 17’1/2 long.  As soon as I heard her cry I started to cry. I got to see her for just a couple of seconds and they quickly took her away to take care of her.  They took her away and place her intestines in the silo to protect her intestines.  The surgeon then told me that her intestines looked good and nothing had to be cut or anything like that.  The first couple of days in the N.I.C.U were tough because I wanted to hold her and I just wanted to take her home.  She got her 2^nd operation to put all the intestines in on September 25^th 2009 and the operation was about two hours long which made me worry but the surgeon then told me that the operation was a success.  Now we are just waiting for them to start feeds and hopefully she will be home soon.  Her intestines have began to function she has had two small bowel movements but they count .