“The Full Story About My Half Uterus” – with Laura Lane

Dr. Nathan: Welcome to “High-Risk Birth Stories.” Brought to you by the creators of the “Healthful Woman” podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Nathan Fox. “High-Risk Birth Stories” is a podcast designed to give you, the listener, a window into life changing experiences of pregnancy, fertility, and childbirth. Laura, welcome to the podcast. Thank you for coming on. 

 

Laura: Thanks for having me on. I’m a big fan. I’ve been bingeing your podcast my entire pregnancy so now I’m on the other side of it. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Well, I appreciate that. Now, Laura Lane, you’re the co-host of the “This is Why” podcast along with Angela. 

 

Laura: Yes. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Which, we did it together a few weeks ago and I think it’s dropping in April so that’s awesome. Thank you. You know, just for our listeners up front, you have a website which is www.lauralane.com. You’re a writer, an author, a performer, a podcaster. And, I read somewhere, you were once a body double for Kristen Wiig? 

 

Laura: Yes. That’s a fun fact in my bio, I was once a body double for Kristen Wiig on “The Tonight Show.” I got the call from “The Tonight Show.” I guess they were going through, like, I guess, the headshots at a comedy theater that I performed at. And they came across me and said, “Yep, that’s who we want for the body double.” And it was not a role that I’ve ever strived to do, but how could I turn down having a story and being able to say that I was once Kristen Wiig’s body double? So I said, “Yep, I’ll be there.” 

 

Dr. Nathan: What does that even mean to be a body double? Was there like an action scene and there were doing something really dangerous and they wanted to risk your life and not hers? 

 

Laura: No, quite the opposite. It was a very boring scene and they just didn’t want to waste her time. 

 

Dr. Nathan: “We’d like to waste your time, please? 

 

Laura: So they put a body double in. Yeah, it was a scene with Jimmy Fallon, and Kristen Wiig was pretending to play the violin in the scene, so you only saw her back, really, and maybe, part of her face. And they just didn’t want to waste famous, important Kristen Wiig’s time, so they hired a body double to do the angles where you wouldn’t see her full face. And that was what they hired me to do. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Did they call you back for the “Wonder Woman” movie? 

 

Laura: They did not call me back for the “Wonder Woman” movie. Yeah, quite the opposite of using me for an exciting action scene, it was for the boring parts that they didn’t want to waste her time for. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Well, that is pretty cool. But we’re going to talk about the birth of your son back in 2018. So, I guess, two and a half, almost three years ago. Rilo, [SP] yes? 

 

Laura: Yes. I can’t believe he’s almost three. That’s wild. 

 

Dr. Nathan: It is pretty wild. And then, just to set the stage. Before that pregnancy, you know, where were you in life, what were you doing, you know, professionally, and sort of, family-wise? 

 

Laura: Yeah. So, at that point, I was married to my partner of five and a half, six years. And we both were living the New York, busy social life. Career-wise, my husband’s an artist so he was busy making art. I had just had my first book come out and that book had gotten optioned for television. So I was hired to write the pilot, and then they were also going to, potentially, have a star in it. I’m not a full-time actress by any means, but I’ve performed comedy. And so, we were going to, potentially, get to star in it. We were about to shoot the pilot and we were…had been thinking about having kids, but it was one of those things like, “Okay, when is the right time for us? You know, probably pretty soon but not right this second because I’ve got to shoot this pilot and we’ve got a lot going on.” You know, I was 30, I think. 30 or 31, so we were definitely about to start having kids pretty soon. But we were very busy in our careers. 

 

And then, around that time, I was having a lot of, I guess, you know, on the medical side, I was having a lot of UTIs. And so, a doctor said, “You know, why don’t we check for kidney stones? Let’s just see what’s going on,” and sent me for an ultrasound. And the ultrasound technician was looking for my kidney. She found my left kidney and said, “You know, that one looks great, there’s no kidney stones there. But I can’t find your right kidney, let me go see if somebody else can find your right kidney.” And a couple of doctors tried and said, “I don’t think you have a right kidney.” And I was like, “That’s interesting news to me.” You know, like, “I’ve spent the last three decades just assuming I had all of my organs.” 

 

Dr. Nathan: It’s like an identity crisis, “Wait, I thought I was sown with two kidneys and now I’m not.” 

 

Laura: Exactly. I was like, “This is weird. Like, I mean I’m alive, I’m okay, I’m healthy. I guess, maybe I didn’t…” You know, plenty of people live healthy lives with just one kidney. But I don’t know. I was always one of those kids, when I was younger, who would go snowboarding off of crazy jumps, and play football with the boys, and play soccer, and run into people, and just do a lot of action sports and get hurt a whole lot. And, I guess, if they had known I only had one kidney when I was a child, they probably would’ve told me not to do a lot of those activities. So that was just, I don’t know, I guess, good I didn’t know as a child, but also, good I didn’t get, you know, hurt the one kidney that you have. Because, I guess, it’s, kind of, an unprotected organ. So they say, if you only have one, you know, don’t injure it. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Right. So, your professional kickboxing career was over? 

 

Laura: Exactly. 

 

Dr. Nathan: And did you tell them on the spot, “Oh, crap. I was going to donate a kidney next week. Now, I can’t.”? 

 

Laura: I’d actually just thought about it. I was like, “If my husband ever needed a kidney, like I would probably give him one.” And then, you know, when you have, like, one, “Now, that’s not going to happen.” 

 

Dr. Nathan: I’m curious, how did you get into that, you know, career from the beginning, you know, writing, and comedy, and theater, and books? Is that something you always did, like, from, as a kid or did you fall into that somehow? 

 

Laura: Yeah. So, I studied journalism in college. I think I always loved storytelling, and liked learning about other people’s lives, and asking questions. And I’m a very curious person so journalism seemed like a good fit for me. And I, kind of, fell into both sports’ journalism and entertainment journalism. I started working at ESPN right out of college. I covered like, all of, you know, our football team and our track team when I was in college and got a job writing for both ESPN and then I was also covering celebrities working at E! Entertainment. And I was doing that for a year out of school and just really wanted to be in New York City. And got a job at a magazine in New York City and left California. Kept, still, working in both worlds, both the entertainment and sports world. But kind of, got, like, deeper, and deeper into the magazine world and moved along to different magazines. 

 

But at some point, chasing celebrities and the, like, gossipy side of it, I did not find fulfilling for various reasons. Even though it was quite exciting to be, you know, getting to go to premiers, and film festivals and there was a lot of really fun and, kind of, exciting aspects of it for, like, a young 20-year-old. But I wanted something else and so I started taking comedy classes just on the side for fun, just to get a little escapism from the grind of the magazine life. And just fell in love with it as a hobby and put together a show. And I just, kind of, got lucky, the show took off and started selling out. It was a show about dating. It was a comedy sketch about dating called “This is Why You’re Single.” 

 

And then we got approached to write a book. You know, the show had gotten written up in “The Wall Street Journal” and “The New York Times.” And someone said, “Do you want to turn your show into a book?” So, my comedy partner who I had written the show with, Angela and I, we wrote a book. And then, the book got optioned for television. And I, kind of, found myself in this new world of writing books and doing comedy that had really started as like a side hobby and enjoyment to get away from my day job. And then I quit my day job at “People Magazine” and said, “I’m going to try and do this full-time.” And so, I had my second book come out a year ago. That was also adapted from a sketch show that I did called “Cinderella and the Glass Ceiling” which is a feminist retelling of classic fairytales. And that is now a book and now we’re trying to adapt that into an animated show. So, yeah, it was kind of like a weird journey for me. But I, kind of, just, I still think of myself as just a storyteller. And whatever medium that is, I’ll try to tell an interesting story. 

 

Dr. Nathan: And weren’t you, at one point, hosting a show on poker? 

 

Laura: Yes, that was during my ESPN days. So, my little brother was, I guess you could call him a professional poker player. You know, you didn’t see him on the World Series, but he was making his full-time job playing poker. And I was trying to write a book with him at one point and asked some of my ESPN editors, “Hey, what do you think about this book idea?” And I didn’t know that around that time, they were looking for a television host to host a new online poker show that they were doing that was filmed in Bristol, Connecticut on the sports center set. And they said, “You know what? Yeah, your book’s fine. Why don’t you come and audition for the show?” And I had done some television TV hosting in college. And then, when I got out of college, I was, kind of, hired for random television hosting gigs. And I got the job, and I hosted this poker show for ESPN for two years. And we went to the World Series, we went to all the tournaments. And, yeah, that was exciting. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Were you covering the Moneymaker Tournament, was that you? 

 

Laura: I don’t know if I was covering the Moneymaker Tournament, but I did have Chris Moneymaker on the show, so… 

 

Dr. Nathan: That was the big change. I think that’s when poker really took off in the U.S. After that World Series, it just exploded. Wow. 

 

Laura: The show, kind of, ended when there was, like, there was something called Black Friday. And that was when all of the online poker sites got shut down by the FBI. And so… 

 

Dr. Nathan: That was a bad day for online poker. 

 

Laura: It was a bad day to be hosting a poker show that was sponsored by one of those sites. 

 

Dr. Nathan: So, coming, you know, back closer to home. When did you start the podcast that you’re doing? 

 

Laura: So, I did not understand how podcasts work, really, when we started it. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Yeah, me too. 

 

Laura: Our book was coming out, that “This is why You’re Single” book was coming out in 2015. So this is, you know, five, six years ago. And we were thinking of ways to promote it and we said, “Why don’t we do a podcast?” We’ll do 30 episodes for each chapter of our book and that’ll be it.” Like, little did we know that, like, you don’t launch a podcast to try to promote a new book. You know, like, it didn’t really make any sense. But then, the podcast, kind of, took off, and like, in the first month, we were on the front page of iTunes and we were hitting, like, the top 10 comedy podcasts. And there just wasn’t the overcrowded marketplace that it is today. And so, we kept doing the podcasts. It just, like, really quickly became, like, I don’t know. I guess, we had an audience, like, right from the get-go and we just got really lucky. 

 

Dr. Nathan: You can say it was a sensation. I know that’s what you were going to say. I heard that. 

 

Laura: I don’t know. I mean, but now when you compare, you know, there’s so many podcasts. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Yeah. Every, you know, doctor with a microphone is getting up there and spewing once or twice a week. It’s ridiculous. Who let these people on? 

 

Laura: We’re definitely not in the top 10 anymore. Our numbers didn’t even necessarily drop, it’s just that there was the podcast boom. And so we launched the podcast in 2015 and it was, kind of, became, like, the most successful thing we had done so we haven’t stopped. And we just hit episode 300… 

 

Dr. Nathan: Wow. 

 

Laura: Which is a lot of episodes as I’m sure you know. 

 

Dr. Nathan: It is. It’s a lot. It’s a lot of editing. So here you are. So, your career has taken off, you’ve got the book, you’ve got the TV show, you’ve got the podcast, and now you have one kidney. 

 

Laura: Now I have one kidney. 

 

Dr. Nathan: And at what point did it, sort of, click either with you or a doctor that one kidney might be a hint to look at your uterus? 

 

Laura: It is such a weird, like, mistake of a journey of how I found out the news. So then, they thought. They said, “Well, you also look like you have a cyst so we’re going to send you to this doctor to, like, look at your cyst.” And then that doctor they sent me to is a fertility doctor. And he’s like, “I don’t even really remove cysts. I don’t know why they sent you to me but you’re here, let me do this ultrasound.” And he’s looking, and he goes, “I don’t think you have a full uterus. And I need to get some more testing. But if my instincts are correct, I don’t think you have a full uterus. You know, don’t worry about your cyst.” But, also, a lot of times, when you have one kidney, it’s kind of like a domino effect where the rest of the organs don’t all develop including the tube sometimes and that side of the uterus because… You’re the doctor, but from what I understand, the uterus forms in two halves that are supposed to join together. And, sometimes, they either don’t completely join together correctly which is why some people have, like… I don’t know. This other, what? Bicornuate uterus, is that right? 

 

Dr. Nathan: Yeah. You nailed it. 

 

Laura: Is that right, Doctor? 

 

Dr. Nathan: Yeah. No, you’re right. The uterus starts when you were a little embryo, as two tubes that have to join together. And so it usually goes right but there’s ways it can not go right. And one of them is where one of the tubes basically just fades away and you’re left with the other one. So you’re left with this, sort of, like half of a uterus that, sort of, only hooks in one direction which will be called unicornuate meaning one cornuate. But it sounds like you have a unicorn which is always a nice thing to tell someone. Your uterus is magical, it’s a unicorn. 

 

Laura: It’s a very mystical sounding condition that I have so, at least, it’s got a fun name. 

 

Dr. Nathan: The reason the kidneys is the key is because those two things that have to come together, they originate from the same place that the kidney originates, or kidneys originate. So, frequently, if there’s an abnormality in the uterus, there’s often one in one of the kidneys as well on the same side. Not always, but they frequently go hand in hand because they came from the same precursors. So, if you see someone with a unicornuate uterus, we look at the kidneys. And if we see someone with one kidney, we look at the uterus. And so, we know they, sort of, go together. 

 

Laura: And if I look back now, there were always little signs that I would have never, at the time, said, “Oh, I must be missing organs on my right side.” But I was a yogi and did a lot of yoga. And I always felt, like, off balance to my left. Like, my right side is easier to balance on than my left. And I had weird hip pain on my left. I don’t know. My theory that doctors have been like, “Yeah, that’s a possibility,” is I was just slightly heavier on my left side. So I was like, I don’t know, tipping a little bit. And I always got, I only had period cramp pain on my left side. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Yeah. That, for sure, would be related. Because the uterus definitely, you know, normally goes straight up. And then, if it’s unicornuate, it’s frequently, sort of, like a boomerang towards that side. And so, you would really feel it on that side. 

 

Laura: Yeah. So, I only ever got period pain on my left side. But, you know, gynecologists, I think, like the last thing they assumed is, “You must be missing half of your uterus.” So they were like, “Oh, that’s normal. Some people get pain on one side more than the other.” 

 

Dr. Nathan: Yeah. It’s nice to be dismissed your whole life, isn’t it? 

 

Laura: I’m sure women do just get pain on one side and it’s nothing to stress about so there was nothing necessarily wrong that would have made them look any earlier. But then, once I did get the diagnosis that I, not only have one kidney, but I also only have half a uterus and one tube and getting pregnant might be a lot harder, that was a lot of a shock or a big shock. Because I had spent my whole life trying not to get pregnant and doing pretty… You know, I was so paranoid of getting pregnant prior, I would use birth control, condoms, the after-morning pill. You know, like, sometimes, all three at once. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Right. 

 

Laura: And so, now, I’m like, “Oh, I might not be able to get pregnant. I’ve been trying everything I can to not get pregnant.” It was a big shock and more just the fear of all of these unknowns. And yeah. 

 

Dr. Nathan: What was the messaging you got from doctors and then the rest of the world, you know, lay press, online, books, whatever, in terms of what this meant to you? Was it, like, doom and gloom or was it, “Hey, probably okay,” or…? 

 

Laura: The fertility doctor that I had met with, he was, kind of, somewhere in between. He didn’t want to make any promises either way and, kind of, said, “You know, you might be able to get pregnant. Staying pregnant could be a little difficult.” I would start trying as soon as possible. And, you know, “We would just have to monitor you really closely. What we don’t want is you miscarrying at five months.” And I’ll just never forget that phrase, “We don’t want you miscarrying at five months.” Because I just picture being five months pregnant and miscarrying. Like, “Oh, my God, what a horrifying, traumatizing thing that could happen.” And, I had, had friends lose pregnancies, like, very, very late on. And, you know, I went to Google. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Sure. 

 

Laura: Of course, Dr. Google. And… 

 

Dr. Nathan: Pretty knowledgeable. Okay. 

 

Laura: Started, you know, reading case studies and trying to look for legitimate sources. But, you know, it didn’t sound very good. There was one that I read that said, “The reproductive performance of women with unicornuate uteruses as poor. A live birth rate of only 29.2%, prematurity rate of 44%.” Another site basically just said, “The odds of a full-term delivery of a healthy baby are roughly 50%.” And so, those were not encouraging statistics. Like, a flip of a coin, to me, was pretty scary. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Those statistics are really… They’re tough because you have to, sort of, know what the context is. Meaning, you know, 50% of what, like, of people who get pregnant, of people who try to get pregnant, of people who make it to 20 weeks? I mean, because, you know, any pregnancy, anytime, like you say, when you get pregnant, right, just at the very beginning, just in the first trimester on average, there’s a 20%, 30% risk of early miscarriage. 

 

Laura: Right. 

 

Dr. Nathan: So, is that included, is that not included? And so, when you don’t get the context, it sounds like, “Holy crap. Like, I’m never going to have a kid.” And it doesn’t really work like that for the unicornuate. It typically does not cause infertility, it typically does not cause early miscarriage. If there’s a complication, it’s usually towards the end of pregnancy. And, you know, saying a pre-term delivery rate of 40%. That’s probably about right, but most of them are late preterm births where the babies survive, and do well, and grow up, and are fine. And so, it’s not usually as bad as people think it is when they read those stats if you, sort of, go into the details of them. Which is part of why I have a job which is nice. 

 

Laura: Yeah. I wish I had talked to you when I found out this news. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Here we go. Podcast. 

 

Laura: It would have been way more encouraging. I don’t know. And then, I guess, reading the message boards was also not so helpful and very discouraging. Which, you know, kind of, like you said, who knows what each person’s story and health situation is? But, you know, there were women that had been trying to get pregnant for seven years and women that were talking about, yeah, losing a baby halfway through the pregnancy, and were giving birth to a baby that was alive but couldn’t survive. Just horrifying stuff, I had to, like, eventually, you know, say to myself, “This is not helpful for me and this is not making me feel any more encouraged.” But, I did wonder, like, “Should I not try to carry a baby?” And, interestingly enough, I have a neighbor who had used a surrogate for her two daughters, and I didn’t know why. It was not my place to ask at the time. But then, you know, since I have given birth to my son and been very open about having my half uterus, she reached out recently and said, you know, “I have the exact same condition that you do and that’s why I used my surrogate.” And so, it is interesting. I think people with my condition, you know, everybody makes a different choice that’s best for them. And… 

 

Dr. Nathan: She used a surrogate before trying to get pregnant, meaning she did it from the start? 

 

Laura: I don’t know her… 

 

Dr. Nathan: Okay. 

 

Laura: …whole situation. But it did, kind of, remind me how, you know, lucky and grateful I am to have been able to, like, carry my two babies. 

 

Dr. Nathan: And, you know, it’s also one of these things where there’s a percentage of people walking around with uterine abnormalities who don’t know about it, right? 

 

Laura: Right. 

 

Dr. Nathan: So, you know, you went 30 years without knowing about it. And other than, you know, not being able to, you know, do a half moon on your right side and having some cramps on your left side, you wouldn’t have known, right? There’s nothing going on. 

 

Laura: Exactly. 

 

Dr. Nathan: And so, what happens is, it’s different for someone like you who finds out, what we call like, incidentally, so to speak, versus someone who has three miscarriages, let’s say, and then comes to the doctor and they do a full workup, and they find this. And so, you don’t know, is that the cause of this or is that incidental? And, since not everyone on earth knows if they have this or not, you can’t really even know, like, what’s the percentage and what’s the chance of bad outcomes. It’s really complicated with these statistics and so people argue about it as well. And so, that’s another reason why it’s complicated to find good messaging on this or accurate information on the Dr. Google. 

 

Laura: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. 

 

Dr. Nathan: You ultimately obviously decided, you know, to try to get pregnant, and how did that go? 

 

Laura: Yeah. So, I said I’m going to try to get pregnant and we tried for six months. Which, when I say that, it doesn’t sound like an incredibly long time. But, I guess, going through it, it felt like forever. It was like half a year of my life punctuated by you know, the two-week wait, and maybe I’m pregnant, I shouldn’t drink this wine, and, like, you know, peeing on sticks. And just going through that over, and over, and over. And then I finally got pregnant and I was so happy, I was so excited. I wanted to tell everybody, but I was also, kind of, terrified because I had, you know, found out about my condition. I didn’t know if I could carry this baby and didn’t really know what it meant. I knew I needed to be, you know, watched, you know, carefully and go in every two weeks with a high-risk doctor. We went in to check for the heartbeat at six and a half, seven weeks and there was no heartbeat. And we were told maybe our dates are off, we should come back again in a week and so we did. And this happened three times and there was no heartbeat. 

 

That was, like, probably the darkest, hardest time of my life. It was so weird because it’s like, you find out you‘re pregnant… And, looking back on it, I mean, yeah, it’s so strange now that I have my son who is this, like, vibrant person I can, like, see in front of me. But, at the time, it was like, I was talking to this baby as soon as I found out I was pregnant, I was journaling to this baby. And I don’t want to call him… Like, call her because we found out it was a girl, this, like, hypothetical baby. But it was, I didn’t know the person, but I did feel love. And so it did feel like this overwhelming loss when we lost the baby. And I finally got a DNC procedure like around two months. Like three days short of two months pregnant when we had just kept going back to check for the heartbeat and they realized this baby is not going to develop any more. And I did the DNC so that they could check for any chromosomal abnormalities which would have told the doctor, you know, this was not a viable baby and it has nothing to do with your body which was supposed to be, kind of, like, encouraging. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Right. Did you think, originally, it was due to the uterus, was that the thought? 

 

Laura: I don’t know. I don’t remember them saying either reason. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Okay. 

 

Laura: I think there was like a chance that it could have, like, implanted, if I’m remembering correctly. Because this was now like three years or… Yeah, three years ago. That it might’ve, like, implanted in a weird place due to the, you know, strange shape of my uterus. And, like, that could have caused… But, anyways, it was a chromosomal abnormality which was supposed to be encouraging. But, at the time, it didn’t help remove the, like, overwhelming sadness and loss that I felt of just how badly I wanted to be a mother. And now I was feeling, you know, even more worried that, like, “Is this not going to happen, like, am I going to be a message board story of, you know, seven years of miscarriages? 

 

Dr. Nathan: Right. 

 

Laura: And, you know, you can’t see into the future at the time, so I didn’t know. Like, I was just really depressed that, like, launched, kind of, like a little dark cloud, I would say. And, yeah, I started going to, like, loss support groups and that helped a little bit. And then, four months later, we got pregnant again and there was a heartbeat then, and it was my son. 

 

Dr. Nathan: When you came back ultimately four months later and you see a pregnancy and a heartbeat, obviously it’s very exciting because that’s the first time you had that. Was there a tremendous amount of fear that kicked in at the same time, or was it, you know, glee? What was it like at the beginning of the pregnancy? 

 

Laura: Yeah. So, I think it was a mix of both. I just needed to hear the heartbeat and I, you know, was reading all the statistics. I knew that, that was, obviously, a very good sign. So I was so excited that there was a heartbeat, but I was, also, still terrified that I could lose this baby given my condition or just the stats of how common miscarriages are in general. It was a mix, I would say. And, like, my whole pregnancy was, kind of, I would say, a mix of both total fear and anxiety with, like, just so much gratitude and calm. It would, like, shift between the two. Like, I went to your practice. 

 

Dr. Nathan: How did you find us? I’m curious, was it through the infertility doctor? 

 

Laura: Yes. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Even though, obviously, you did not have any infertility issues, as you said, you saw him because of some weird, you know, referral for a cyst which he didn’t treat? 

 

Laura: Exactly. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Right. 

 

Laura: It was like a strange referral that I ended up there. But it was helpful because he was able to, kind of, he knew all about my condition. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Right. 

 

Laura: And then, obviously, he had helped a lot of women that end up finding they’ve got uterine abnormalities. And so, he was able to spot it very quickly and it ended up, kind of, being a blessing in disguise. And then, yeah, he recommended. He said, “These are the people to see. They’re the best of the best, so…” 

 

Dr. Nathan: Okay, so he’s a con artist. Good. 

 

Laura: Exactly. 

 

Dr. Nathan: You found my cousin Steve who sent you to us. Okay, so you’re in a high-risk practice. Did that give you a sense of calm? I never really know how people feel about that. You know, when people ask me, “Am I high-risk?” I always ask them, “Do you want to be high-risk,” right? Because some people find, it… 

 

Laura: Right. 

 

Dr. Nathan: They’re like, “All right, I’m high-risk, I’m in a high-risk practice, they’re going to take good care of me.” And other people, like, “You know, they’re just over doing it. They’re making me worry.” Like, you know, “I’m fine and they’re going crazy.” I’m always interested how people feel about, you know, the concept of being at a high-risk practice. What did you feel about it? 

 

Laura: I felt grateful to know that I was being watched by doctors that had seen people with my condition. Because if I was going to just, you know, a doctor that I was their, maybe, like third case of a unicornuate uterus, and they had not read all the studies and did not know a lot about the condition, I would have felt very nervous. So, for me, it brought me a lot of calm. 

 

I guess, being labeled high-risk. I had already been, like, labeled that since I found out about my half uterus so that wasn’t going to change. So, for me, I felt, like, immense calm. Or I don’t know if calm, but just safe. I felt safer being with doctors that had seen cases similar to mine. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Okay. And how did the pregnancy go for you? 

 

Laura: I was just so grateful every day that this baby was still inside me. That, I think because there was that fear that this baby could come out before he was ready, it didn’t matter what symptom I had. It was a sign that I was still pregnant, and it was wonderful. Like, throw anything at me. By the end. I had, like, sciatica, nosebleeds, I was, like, so bloated and puffy, I had to buy these crazy-wide shoes. So, for me, it was like the most blissful pregnancy because I just didn’t even necessarily notice any of the symptoms or I enjoyed them. 

 

And then, in terms of, like, the anxiety and fear, I don’t know. When I look back at all of the stuff I did during that pregnancy, I probably seem like a little bit of a crazy head. But when anybody recommended somebody that might “support the pregnancy,” I would sign up for an appointment. So I was seeing an acupuncturist, a chiropractor. Somebody said, “You know, you should see an imagery specialist,” which I had never heard of. And, probably, for the best if you have not heard of it. But I went to an imagery specialist which had me, you know… It was almost like, I don’t know, somewhere in between like a hypnotist and someone that like, “Picture the baby in a garden.” 

 

Dr. Nathan: Wow. 

 

Laura: And, like, “What does the baby want in the garden?” And like, I was like, “I don’t know, lemonade?” No. I was very bad at answering the questions. But they did, like, a lot of visualization. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Were they, like, dangling one of those old watches in front of you back and forth? 

 

Laura: I mean, basically. 

 

Dr. Nathan: That’s awesome. Okay. 

 

Laura: I only went one time. But I was just so open-minded to anybody that might, like, de-stress me and keep me calm, and, like, keep the fear away. I went to a craniosacral therapist a bunch. Which, I did enjoy that. I loved acupuncture, I loved craniosacral therapy, I loved the chiropractor. 

 

Dr. Nathan: All right. Listen, God bless. Whatever works, you know? It’s all safe, I mean. 

 

Laura: I was doing a lot of whatever works. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Okay. And so you found a lot of that helpful so, excellent. 

 

Laura: I was lucky. You know, I was going in every two weeks to you guys to check my cervix to make sure that it wasn’t opening which is a sign of preterm or a sign that you might be going into labor. Is that right? 

 

Dr. Nathan: Yeah, you got it. 

 

Laura: Yeah. So, the cervix was good. I got very lucky there. I don’t know. I had, like, one scare where I was about to board a plane and there was this crazy shooting pain, like, I couldn’t even take a deep breath, in my abdomen. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Oh, yeah, I remember that. 

 

Laura: Yeah. I raced down the corridor dragging my suitcase and hailed a cab and was, like, crying. I could barely breathe. And, you know, ran into the office and was like, “Please tell me the baby is okay, tell me he is still alive.” And I can’t remember which. It was one of the women at your practice. And she goes, “The baby is totally fine. You just have a lot of gas.” And I was like… 

 

Dr. Nathan: Gas? 

 

Laura: …”What, gas? I just missed my flight because I have gas?” And I felt so… 

 

Dr. Nathan: Damn you, imagery person. 

 

Laura: I know. A mix of, like, immense embarrassment and also, obviously, gratitude that everything was fine. But, yeah, apparently gas can get trapped in weird places. And she made me feel not so embarrassed because she told me that a lot of people show up to emergency rooms thinking they’re having a heart attack when it’s just gas. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Imagine you’re in a garden and you have gas. 

 

Laura: And imagine you’re in a garden and you have gas. Exactly. And I was like, “Well, okay. I guess I’m not going on that trip, but baby is okay.” So, yeah. Overall, the pregnancy was great. Yeah, everything was fine. 

 

Dr. Nathan: And then, and ultimately you delivered at term, at 37 weeks, right? 

 

Laura: Yes. So I had a scheduled C-section because another thing that happens with unicornuate uteruses is that the baby, sometimes, doesn’t have enough room to turn around and so they’re often breached. Which was the case for me. And I had tried everything I could to turn the baby with those spinning babies and, you know, somersaults in pools. And, anyways, the baby did not turn. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Okay. 

 

Laura: None of that helped. There was just no room. And so, I had the scheduled C-section, but then I, yeah, woke up in the middle of the night, my water broke, and I called you guys, and I went in and had a C-section. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Excellent. And so, he was a healthy birth. He weighed like 5.5 pounds, 6 pounds in that range. 

 

Laura: Yep, 5 pounds, 10 ounces. But, you know, it was completely healthy, and I got to bring him home. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Amazing. So that’s awesome. And then, what’s it like being home with a newborn after all of this? 

 

Laura: What a blur that whole beginning part is. It’s so funny. I mean, everybody has different experience with C-section. Some people are, you know, like, “Love my C-section, not a big deal.” For me, I found, like, being awake while I was cut open, like, incredibly traumatizing. And I’m somebody that doesn’t like to get blood taken out and needs somebody else to take my splinters out. So, the idea that I was awake and knew I was being cut open was so horrifying and I just did not deal well with the pain. So I had a really, kind of, just rough start with the, like, psychology behind it. 

 

And then also just being, I don’t like taking pain medications. If I have a headache, I’m the kind of person that will just try to get to the root of the problem. I, like, very rarely, take Tylenol. So I just did not feel very good on the pain medications, but I was also in immense pain. So, I think, a mix of, like, crazy hormones and the pain medications, and then, like, getting over being cut open and awake for the whole thing. Yeah, I had a lot of anxiety at the beginning. Like, yeah, postpartum anxiety, it just felt like I had adrenaline rushing in my body for the first like two or three weeks at all times. Like, I was about to run an Olympic race, or something is what it felt like. But then, at the same time, I was, you know, so grateful I have this healthy baby and he was just the cutest little dude in the world. 

 

And, yeah, it’s true what they say, I just called a lot of friends that had, had… I was like, “What’s happening to me, why do I feel this way?” And they said, “I promise it will pass. I promise it will pass.” So I just tried to, you know, say that mantra to myself a lot, you know, “This will pass.” And it’s a good mantra, I think, for parents no matter what they’re going through for good and bad. Just remember that, like, this will pass. The good moments, the most, like, beautiful moments with your child will pass so savor them, and, like, enjoy them and be present. And then, also, if they’re having a tantrum or if you’re not feeling good, like, that will also pass. So, that helped get me through those, like, first few weeks that I found really rough after the C-section and taking care of a newborn. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Ultimately, you decided to do this again because, as we’re recording this at the end of March, you’re due in three to four weeks. You’re at the back end of pregnancy again, 36 weeks, right? 

 

Laura: Yeah. When you scheduled this podcast, I was like, “Sure. Let’s put it in the calendar and see if I’m… I might be in the hospital when we’re supposed to record.” But, baby is still in, he is still doing well. So, yeah, I’m pregnant with my second son. He‘s breached again. Because they say, you know, the first baby might expand your uterus and give them a little more room, so I was hoping, maybe, he’d have room to turn but we’ll be having another C-section. So… 

 

Dr. Nathan: Are you going to ask them to put you to sleep this time? 

 

Laura: I’ve asked for laughing gas, just so I’m, like, not totally there. Which, I guess… 

 

Dr. Nathan: Well, you’ve done comedy before, so, you know, that just makes sense… 

 

Laura: But I don’t know if they’ll do that because, I guess, with COVID, the breathing, I don’t know. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Oh, yeah, that’s right. 

 

Laura: They don’t really like the laughing gas. But I’m fully vaccinated so I’m hoping… 

 

Dr. Nathan: Cool. 

 

Laura: …maybe they’ll let me. But I don’t know. My doctor was like, “We’ll do the gentle C-section. I’ll have the clear thing.” And I was like, “Please do not put the clear thing. I do not want to see any of it.” 

 

Dr. Nathan: I do not want the gentle C-section, I want the rough one. 

 

Laura: No. I mean, I want every other aspect of the gentle C-section but not the part where you see the baby coming out of your cut-open stomach. 

 

Dr. Nathan: How has the pregnancy been thus far for you? Is it different from the first time because you’ve already been through it and, sort of, maybe, less fear or something like that? 

 

Laura: Yeah, it’s interesting. Because I’ve been pregnant during a global pandemic… 

 

Dr. Nathan: Sure. 

 

Laura: So, there’s, like, that fear that’s been there. And I definitely have noticed I have a lot more confidence. Like, the anxiety is still there. And if I don’t feel the baby kick for a little bit, like, my brain will just wander into, like, I don’t know, dark places and I’ll be like, “I need to, like, you know, drink something cold, like, I need to feel this baby.” So, I still, like, just… I don’t know. Like, until I’m holding my son, and he’s breathing, and he’s in my arms, I don’t think I’ll ever feel completely at ease during a pregnancy. But I have felt a lot more confident just in terms of, I don’t know, like, what I physically do like I’m working out a lot more. I was doing, like, very gentle yoga mostly for my last pregnancy, and now I’m like, weights. So now I’m like 20 pounds lighter this pregnancy also, I think. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Wow. 

 

Laura: Just because I’m, yeah, which is a lot when you think about it. But I think I’m just, I’m not eating for two and I’m just working out and walking a lot more and not so scared, physically, what I do. And then, also being in a pandemic, I’m not eating out so I’m cooking. I’m only cooking healthy food. Which, I thought I ate pretty healthy last time, but maybe I didn’t understand that you-don’t-eat-for-two thing. So I physically feel amazing this time. I feel like I could be like six months pregnant right now and the baby, you know, could come out any day. So I physically feel really great and that’s just given me, you know… Yeah. I feel, at this stage, like, at the very end. I remember, last time, I was just, like, there wasn’t a whole lot I could… I just remember being like, “Oh, my God, I feel very bloated, very ready. Yeah, I feel good and it’s been, like, a smooth pregnancy. Like, cervix is closed, which is what they really watch out for, and baby is moving a lot. And so, I feel very, very, very grateful. 

 

Dr. Nathan: It’s so interesting. I wanted to ask you, just looking back on all this, do you ever think about what would have happened if you never found out about your kidney and you, you know, just got pregnant? And we may never have known about this uterine condition until, maybe, your actual C-section and noticed that, at the time, that… Do you ever, like, wish that it would have been that way, that you didn’t even know about this? 

 

Laura: Yeah. I think, actually, it probably would have, maybe, been… Oh, God, that’s it. I mean, I think it, maybe, would have been better. I mean, you know, God forbid my cervix open and like [crosstalk 00:38:40]… 

 

Dr. Nathan: Right. Knowing that nothing happened. Right, in retrospect. Only in retrospect, yeah. 

 

Laura: Knowing that nothing happened and that I was able to carry my baby to 37, and knowing that, like, all they would have thought is, like, “Oh, man. Bummer, your baby is breached.” Maybe I wouldn’t have had so much anxiety. Like, it maybe would’ve been better. I do wonder about certain choices. Like, I, maybe, would have tried to do, like, a version to turn the breached baby to avoid surgery. And they say like, that’s probably not a good idea with a half uterus. So… 

 

Dr. Nathan: Yeah. Well, mostly, it just wouldn’t have worked. It’s not necessarily, like, dangerous, it just, the likelihood it would’ve been successful is really pretty low. 

 

Laura: Oh, okay. I didn’t realize that. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Maybe it’s more dangerous. But it’s hard to imagine why it’d be really dangerous as just like, the kid is not budging. 

 

Laura: Yeah. I mean, knowing that nothing happened and that I carried a baby to, you know, early term where he didn’t have to go to the ICU and like, there was no intervention that the doctors had to do to, you know, stop me from going into early labor. Yeah, it would have saved me a lot of doctor’s appointments. It probably would’ve saved me, like, some hours in therapy working through my fears. It would have saved me a lot of time going to all these, like, gurus that I was trying to do to de-stress me from my fears of, you know, stillbirth, and giving birth to a baby too early for it to survive, and all of these scary things that were possibilities that never happened, thank God. It would’ve probably been better if I would have never known and had just had like a, you know, semi-blissful pregnancy. Yeah. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Yeah. And this happens a lot, I mean, for what you have, the unicornuate uterus. And there’s a lot of other conditions or whatever. And we see them and, you know, we tell people about them because, you know, we, kind of, have to, we can’t not tell them. But, you know, if you say to someone, “Listen, most of the time, nothing is going to happen. You’re going to be fine, your baby is going to be fine. But the chance of something, whatever, is higher, and so we have to watch you closer.” And then when we don’t do anything other than watch and nothing happens, we always think, “Man, it’s probably better if we never even knew about this.” You know, we’d, sort of, like, you know, put it back under the rock. 

 

Then there are situations where we actually intervene and there’s a good outcome. And then we think, “All right, maybe it was good that we knew because we did the intervention.” But I just thought it was interesting in these situations, you know, how much good we’re doing versus just, you know, raising a lot of anxiety and fear. I think it’s warranted, I’m not saying it’s incorrect to look and to tell people. But it’s just, sort of, the consequence of knowing things, it, sometimes works against you. 

 

Laura: Yeah. I mean, I’m definitely one of the, I guess, you know, lucky ones, if you look at… Yeah. Like, so it’s easy for me to say, “Oh, I wish I never knew.” But, you know, God forbid I was, like, trying to get pregnant for however many years when I could’ve, maybe, just not put myself through that. Or, like, God forbid I lost a baby early on in the… You know, like, so, and wasn’t being watched by a high-risk doctor and they could have done something. I would have, you know, never forgiven myself. So, in that sense, I guess I’m glad that I took all the, you know, precautions, you know, seeing you guys and going in every two weeks, and doing all that. 

 

Dr. Nathan: I mean, from my perspective, purely selfish, I’m glad because we got to meet. 

 

Laura: Yes. Thank you. 

 

Dr. Nathan: And so this never would have happened. This podcast, you and I, so that’s cool. I wanted to ask you, just in terms of who you are in your career, going into your pregnancies, you were already, somewhat, in the public eye, right. You’re writing, you’re performing, you’re doing a podcast. Did you intend to be private or public about your own pregnancy and did that, sort of, change when things got a little more complicated? I’m curious what your thoughts were. 

 

Laura: Going into it, it was really important for me that I had an identity outside of motherhood. So I, going into having children, was like, “I’m not going to be one of those people that post pictures of my kid on my Instagram, and I am not going to do a comedy about being pregnant, and I’m not going to write about it. Like, that’s going to be a separate part of my life.” And then, you know, I have a podcast where we give advice and we… It’s a comedy podcast, it’s a comedy-advice podcast and we talk about our lives and people share very intimate details about their own lives. And when I had the miscarriage, I kind of felt like I…I don’t know, like I had an obligation because nobody has an obligation to talk about anything they don’t want to. But I did feel like I wanted to share the story to, I guess, help other people that had gone through something similar. I felt some responsibility, weird as that may sound, to our listeners who share all these, you know, details about their own lives. I felt like, I don’t know, I wanted to share it with them. So I did and I’m glad that I did because, just there was, like, a flood of emails in response to that episode. 

 

And then, yeah, it took me a long time to share my unicornuate-uterus story, my half-uterus story, my two little miracle babies. I just was journaling about the experience, kind of, throughout and had tried to write a piece a few times and it never really felt right. And then, yeah, I just recently published a piece about the experience. But that was a piece that took like, yeah, it was like three-plus years in the making because I was, like, you know, journaling throughout both pregnancies and throughout the loss. Yeah. I don’t know. It’s weird. Yeah. It wasn’t until I became a mother where I was like, “Well, he is the cutest human ever to live so I need to put pictures of him and share them with my friends.” So, yeah, it all, kind of, changed. I’ve been a little more open about sharing about motherhood, but that was not the intention at all. It was, like, very important to me that I had, like, other career stuff going on so that I didn’t… I didn’t want to be like a mommy blogger. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, it just didn’t feel like that was the right… 

 

Dr. Nathan: I take some exception to what you said before because I thought I was the cutest being that ever lived. But, okay. I don’t mind going down to second place now. That’s totally okay. But, you know, what you said before does make a lot of sense when you said, “Does it make sense?” Because, literally, the question I wrote down, I’m going to read it word for word, “Being that you have such a large audience, did you feel that telling your story was an opportunity to connect to your followers or a responsibility to help educate and inform?” Meaning, people do feel that way. You have this public forum and, you know, when your personal life is… You know, you can connect to people, but also particularly with what you’re talking about because this is so common for people to have struggles, or fears, or concerns about, you know, fertility, and pregnancy, and parenthood. And you start to feel like, “Well, like I almost must, you know, share it with them because I can help people.” And it’s, that’s like, it’s not a drive but you get this sense of responsibility. And I was just curious how you thought about that, so I think what you described is completely understandable. 

 

Laura: Yeah. And it’s human connection too. It‘s funny, when people in my everyday life find out I have a podcast, if it’s like, let’s say a parent at my son’s school, or a neighbor. And they’re like, “I’m going to check out your podcast.” Like, the first thing I blurt out is like, “Please don’t.” Because it’s, there’s so much, too much information, like I’ve talked about my sex life, I’ve talked about like… You know, like, just things I would not talk about with somebody I just met or necessarily like a neighbor. I wouldn’t be like, “Hi, I’m Laura Lane and I had a miscarriage. And this is, like, how sex is going with my husband, and this is a fight I just got in with a friend.” And, like, I wouldn’t say all that. You know, there’s a certain, like, kind of, social etiquette when you are with people that you see regularly in your day-to-day life that, maybe, are not your best friends but they’re, like, one ring out of that circle. But then, with my listeners, it’s like, I don’t necessarily know them, but we’ll correspond over email and they’ll, sometimes, slide into my DMs. But we have, like, a very intimate relationship and know everything about each other. And so, it is very strange. It’s like the relationship with strangers who listen to our show and know so much about me is different than the people that I actually engage with more regularly in my day-to-day life. 

 

And, yeah, it’s very interesting. I felt some responsibility, and obligation in wanting to, like, help and share aspects of the human experience with people that I have, maybe, never met in person that I don’t feel an obligation to share, necessarily, with people that I see. And then, it is funny, because, yeah, like I told you earlier in the show, like my neighbor reaching out who I had lived, you know, next to for seven years and we had the same condition and never talked about it because we just didn’t go to that deep, deeper level with each other. So… 

 

Dr. Nathan: Right, your floor has one total uterus. 

 

Laura: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. There you go. So I don’t know what the takeaway is. Maybe, be more open with your neighbors or just… I don’t know. I don’t know what the takeaway is. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Hi, I’m Laura. This is my preferred gender pronoun, and this is how many uteruses I have. 

 

Laura: Exactly. I should put that in my signature. 

 

Dr. Nathan: That’d be awesome, half uterus. Did you find humor to be a good coping mechanism for you? I mean, you, you know, trained in comedy, you perform in comedy. Is that something you were able to use in your own life when you were going through this? And you said you had a very dark time in your life. Were you able to, sort of, just, like, snap a joke at the same time to make light of these things? 

 

Laura: Yes, yes. Always. I was performing in a comedy show with my first pregnancy and I was like very, very pregnant. I was performing in it all the way up until… You know, I was being very careful during the pregnancy, but I was still trying to live my life and I performed until like six days before my water broke. And I had this big belly on stage and we just kept writing, like, funnier and raunchier jokes about the belly into the show because we had to, like, acknowledge it. Because it’s a sketch comedy show, but, you know, the characters I’m playing, they’re not pregnant, but I am obviously an actress that had a giant belly. So, yeah, I did find, like, humor is just such a… It’s my favorite outlet for anything in life that’s, like, hard, or difficult, or even just joyful. Yeah. So I definitely turned to humor and would, like, make jokes about it. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Do you ever get any backlash from people who don’t appreciate it? You know, you’re joking about something and, you know, does it ever backfire with one of your listeners? Or are they, sort of, they know what they’re signing up for? 

 

Laura: I’ve never gotten backlash about, yeah, a joke I’ve tried to make because it’s usually, like, about myself. So, yeah, I’ll, kind of, make myself… My sense of humor is not really like poking fun of other people type of humor so I’m sure people have not enjoyed jokes I’ve made on the podcast. But I don’t know. They’ve been pretty kind about it. Yeah. I can’t think of a specific example, I guess, would be the answer. 

 

Dr. Nathan: It’s actually so funny what you’ve done in your life. Because I would say, you know, other than medicine, I spend 90% of my time thinking about, you know, sports, poker, and comedy. 

 

Laura: Oh, wow. 

 

Dr. Nathan: So there you go. So it’s like you’ve covered my life. But, you know, in medicine, it’s interesting, you know, by nature, I joke all the time with people. It’s just who I am. I’m, sort of, the same way, I’m always, you know, trying to be funny. Usually not. But, whatever, working on it. And it comes out when I’m with patients. It’s just, that’s just my nature. And, you know, obviously, I can be serious, and we can talk about serious things but that’s just who I am. And I always wonder, there’s probably people who, you know, find it refreshing and there’s other people who find it annoying. And what do you find, like, you know, when you’re seeing doctors or professionals, do you think it’s, like, great when they’re trying to be funny or is it just sort of like, “This dude is weird?” 

 

Laura: Personally, I love it. I find it disarming, I find it genuine, I find it that they’re trying to connect with me on, you know, not just who I am on a paper kind of level. If somebody is annoyed by that, I just think they’re probably not the right patient for you. For us, Dr. Barbara is who we saw most frequently at your practice. And I don’t know if you agree. But I would say you guys have, kind of, like, similar styles and that you’re just very relaxed. And, like, I feel like I’m talking to an actual human person. And where, you know, there’s other doctors I’ve talked to and it just feels like I’m talking to, like, a robot answering my questions. And they’re ready to get to the next patient and they’re not taking the time to make jokes and connect. So, I wish more doctors would try to bring some humor into the practice. And the worse the joke, the better. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Excellent. What does Nick think about all of this? 

 

Laura: God, that’s a great question. Nick is my husband. What does Nick think about all this? He… What does…? I’m, like, pausing, it’s almost like I’ve never asked him. He just, like… 

 

Dr. Nathan: He’s got to hate it, “Why are you doing a podcast that’s talking about me?” 

 

Laura: Oh, in terms of, like, me talking about it? 

 

Dr. Nathan: Everything. Yeah, the whole story, you podcasting about it. Yeah, I know he is involved because he is, like, your tech guy. 

 

Laura: In terms of the podcast, he is so cool. Like, I’ll talk about anything and he is like, “Look, this is your story. It’s your story to tell.” What he doesn’t want me to talk about is stories about his life. Like, if I talk about an ex-girlfriend of his. Or, like, I wouldn’t talk about his family. I mean, like, I just wouldn’t do that. But there’s been like a couple of times where I’ve borderline talked about something that maybe was a story, I was not the main person in the story necessarily. But if it’s anything involving me and my life, he thinks it’s like, you know, it’s… What did Nora Ephron say? Like, it’s my story to tell. You know, like, everything is copy. He never tells me not to talk about certain things. In terms of, like, the unicornuate uterus, I think he was also just like, he was also very scared, I guess, a little bit, of, like, what could happen. He’s a very, like, chill, calm dude so he was a good calming force and, like, showed up at all the appointments. And when I wanted to go to all the crazy gurus that I went to, he was like, “Yep, you do your thing. Whatever helps you.” So, even though, you know, I know his personal feeling is like, he even thinks, like, acupuncture is BS. Which, I know that it’s not because I have seen my body get healed. But he is like, you know, he’s a very skeptical kind of person. I think he felt comforted going to you guys being, like, actual doctors… 

 

Dr. Nathan: Cool. 

 

Laura: And with all my gurus, he was like, “You do your thing but that’s not for me.” 

 

Dr. Nathan: “Not for me,” wow. Laura, listen. Good luck. You’re going to deliver soon, it’s awesome. I’m real excited for you. 

 

Laura: Any moment. The water did not break while we were recording the podcast… 

 

Dr. Nathan: Good. 

 

Laura: …so that’s good. I would have been like, “We’ve got to finish the show so I can’t go to the hospital right now.” 

 

Dr. Nathan: Oh, yeah, you have time. Yeah, if you’re water broke, we have plenty of time. We could have done this, got you to the hospital, had the delivery. All good, no worries. 

 

Laura: Maybe I would have, like, continued recording while I was in the car on the way to the hospital. But, luckily, that did not happen. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Awesome. Well, listen, good luck with the birth. Really excited for you. It’s going to be awesome. We will touch base afterwards. And for our listeners, I highly recommend your podcast. It’s called “This is Why.” You know, it’s informative, it’s funny, it’s entertaining. You can, you know, start now. Check out the old ones, it’s all good. And, yeah, we’re going to hear from you again. Thanks for coming on, Laura. 

 

Laura: Thanks for having me on the show. I’m so grateful that you do this show and share people’s stories. And I know your show and what you talk about will help a lot of people so thank you for what you do. 

 

Dr. Nathan: Thank you for listening to “High-Risk Birth Stories” brought to you by the creators of the “Healthful Woman” podcast. If you’re interested in telling your birth story on our podcast, please go to our partner website at www.healthfulwoman.com and click the link for sharing your story. You can also email us directly at HRBS@highriskbirthstories.com. 

 

If you liked today’s podcast, please be sure to check out our “Healthful Woman” podcast as well, where I speak with the leaders in the field to help you learn more about women’s health, pregnancy and wellness. Have a great day. 

 

The information discussed in “High-Risk Birth Stories” is intended for information and entertainment only and does not replace medical care from your physician. 

 

The stories and experiences discussed in our podcasts are unique to each guest and are not intended to be representative of any standard of care or expected outcomes. 

 

As always, we encourage you to speak with your own doctor about specific diagnoses and treatment options for an effective treatment plan. 

 

Guests on “High-Risk Birth Stories” have given their permission for us to share their personal health information.