Lauren Pratapas with her husband John Legittino and son Jude, who was conceived after a miscarriage.Photo:Cecilie Olaussen
Cecilie Olaussen
Lauren Pratapas, 37, will never forget when an ordinary day turned tragic in April 2022.
Pratapas contacted her doctor, who said it could be gas. The doctor recommended she walk around and try to use the bathroom. When Pratapas did, she heard a pop. Then, there was a surge of liquid, including blood.
She knew something was wrong.
“The drive to the hospital is a blur, but at the same time I can remember so many things like they were just yesterday,” Pratapas tells PEOPLE exclusively. “Almost like a movie I watched last night before bed. But instead it’s my very own nightmare."
“My husband kept telling me everything was going to be OK no matter what and how we will get through this together,” she recalls.
“But all I could think about was what I had seen, the pain that I felt, the heavy bleeding I was experiencing and the understanding that all of this love, my hopes and the dreams I had for this little girl and our new family were taken from me in a moment.”
Lauren and her son Jude when he was born in March 2023.John Legittino
John Legittino
Pratapas later found out she had experienced a completemiscarriagedue to a medical condition known as cervical incompetence. This condition, affecting 1-2% of pregnancies, results from aprematurely opening cervix, often leading to second- and third-trimester miscarriages.
Looking back, she believes the experience was due to gaps in the maternal healthcare system. She believes more routine checks could have led to closer monitoring of hercervix,which could have detected the condition earlier.
“Why does something that has been going on since the dawn of time still feel so archaic, medieval and backwards?” Pratapas tells PEOPLE. “The truth is, so much technology and development has happened as it relates to childbirth, but why doesn’t it feel that way?”
In honor of October’sPregnancy, Infant and Child Loss Awareness Month, Pratapas is speaking out about the outdated practices in maternal health.
“I literally lost a child,” she says. “The right test or proactive screening may have detected my cervix shortening and widening — the clear signs of cervical incompetence — but that isn’t the care I was receiving.”
She acknowledges that her situation in general is one of privilege: “I was perfectly healthy, zero preexisting conditions and going to what was considered to be one of the best OBGYN practices in the DC area,” she says.
“I couldn’t help but wonder, if this was my experience as a woman with access to some of the best resources in the country, how were other women being treated?”
Jude was born after his mom suffered a miscarriage.Cecilie Olaussen
Now that she has a happy family of 3, Pratapas is sharing her story to raise awareness about cervical incompetence and to de-stigmatize pregnancy loss.
“There are widespread, systematic problems in maternal fetal medicine and women simply deserve better,” Pratapas says.
source: people.com
