Tag Archives: Pregnancy

CDC issues guidelines for pregnant women during Zika outbreak

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday issued guidelines for doctors caring for pregnant women during the Zika outbreak, a mosquito-borne illness linked with microcephaly marked by unusually small head size and brain damage.

The new guidelines urge doctors to ask their pregnant patients about their travel history to areas with Zika virus transmission.

Women who had traveled to regions in which Zika virus is active and who report symptoms during or within two weeks of travel should be offered a test for Zika virus infection. Pregnant women who had no clinical symptoms associated with the infection such be offered an ultrasound to check the fetus’ head size or check for calcium, two signs of microcephaly.

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen, editing by G Crosse)

Texas Mother Gives Birth To Quintuplets After Refusing Abortion

A Texas woman has given birth to the nation’s first all-female set of quintuplets after doctors suggested a selective reduction abortion.

Danielle Busby and her husband had struggled with infertility and went through several unsuccessful intrauterine insemination processes.  The couple decided they would give it one last try.

“We completely laid it at God’s feet and said that we would try one last time,” the Busby family explained on their GoFundMe page.

The couple had a daughter named Blayke.  The couple decided to try again a few years later and when natural did not work, they tried another IUI process that worked.

“Never would we have imagined the plan that God had for us in our journey to grow our little family,” the Busbys said.

They were urged by doctors to have an abortion to increase the chances of live birth for a portion of the babies.  The couple flat out refused to end the lives of any of the children God was giving them.

“We are holding on to our faith and convictions as followers of Christ and refuse to abort over half of our babies per the medical doctors advice,” the Busbys stated. “Every week not one baby showed any signs of having problems or issues. All hearbeats and scans have been great. How would you even choose at that point?”

On April 8th, the couple welcomed Olivia Marie, Ava Lane, Hazel Grace, Parker Kate and Riley Paige.

The director of the Woman Hospital of Texas NICU said the babies are doing well.

“The baby girls did well during the delivery and are currently requiring only modest support of their breathing,” Dr. Jayne Finkowski-Rivera said. “They were all in the appropriate weight range for their gestational age, which is due to their mother’s excellent efforts to have the healthiest pregnancy possible. They have made a strong start in life, and we are excited to watch them grow and mature.”