So, pregnancy… yay! Most people are generally living in the country where they are planning to give birth. Jacob and I are not ‘most people’. We/I got pregnant while we were living in the UK, so most of our pregnancy care was done with the UK health system before moving back to Australia at 32 weeks pregnant. I’ll tell ya what, flying at 32 weeks requires so many forms to fill out, blood tests, doctors notes as well as compression socks (sexy…) and foot hammocks for the plane!

For most of the pregnancy, Frankie had been a star fetus. She was measuring perfect for her gestational age. The midwife in the UK was happy with her size. I was on the smaller side in how I was carrying, but nothing that they were concerned about. Everything was great until we landed back in Brisbane and I had my first appointment at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. I went in for my appointment and they were immediately concerned with just how small I was measuring. They sent me for another ultrasound pretty much straight away and I was told to return two days later with the report from the ultrasound place. So, we got the ultrasound done and upon reading the report, they had measured Frankie to be 31/32 weeks in gestational age – I was actually 36 weeks pregnant. So, she was measuring 4 weeks behind what she should have been. All scans were normal, so the doctors and midwives were quite confused as everything was perfect yet my little baby was too little. I went and got extra scans and ultrasounds and then went back for my checkup appointment and was then told that we would need to put a plan in place about how we would continue the pregnancy knowing she was small. They mentioned that induction may need to happen to make sure she was okay. I instantly felt like a failure. Why was my body failing to do the one thing it is meant to do?!