Another aspect of the Palin "baby story" that doesn't add up (from article)

[Bread and Circus]

*caveat: I'm a family physician and I have to admit that while I am intrigued this Palin baby story, it's hard for me to buy it. One, it's really rare for a 17 year girl to deliver a Down's syndrome baby and two, although it would be easy to fake/hide a pregnancy, I think it would really hard to fake/hide a birth in a hospital because of the size of a medical team involved. I lean toward the notion that the baby is really the governor's. However, there's enough of this story that is fishy and doesn't add up that certainly makes this worth discussing in my book. I just want to know the truth one way or the other.

This article is from Anchorage Daily News, dated April 22nd, 2008. The key part is that allegedly Gov. Palin's water broke at 4:00am on April 17th, 2008 and at the time she thought she was "experiencing cotnractions". This is in direct conflict with other reports where she states it broke during her conference. That it might have broke at 4:00 am is significant for a few reasons.

1.) If her water truly broke at 4:00 am on 4/17 and she delivered at 6:30 am on 4/18 then her period of time of rupture of membranes would be 26 hours. This is a dangerous delay as risk of perinatal infection to mother and child go up after 24 hours. So, by this timeline Gov. Palin and her doctor, truly put the baby at risk in objectifiable terms. If we are to believe Palin, had anything gone wrong, her doctor would have justifiably been possibly guilty of medical malpractice because it seems the doctor didn't make it apparent to Gov. Palin that the baby needed to come out by the 24 hour mark.

2.) Now, if she though her water broke at 4:30 am and decided to attend her noon luncheon that would be really odd indeed, furthermore, from the way things read, she didn't even get on a plane until much later and didn't arrive in Alaska until very late. All of these unnecessary delays seem like extremely bad judgment. It also makes it hard to believe the timeline. As another OB posted at TPM, as a multiparous woman (meaning she had delivered many babies before), her water breaking would often lead to delivering the baby long prior to the 26 hour window we are led to believe this occurred. Like that OB said, there was a high probability that baby would have been delivered on the plane or before. Given that medical equipment, suction, and a baby warmer is not available at 27K feet, I think risking that is really really stupid.

3.) Number one and number two not only raise concerns about the "common sense" of Gov. Palin (and she strikes me as someone who doesn't have any) but it also raises a lot of questions in my mind about that family doctor. I've personally delivered 50 babies and spent 6 months on an ob floor in my Family Practice training. To be honest, that's not a lot of experience, but it is some experience. I was taught to take ROM seriously (although it can be managed expectantly) because it "starts the clock ticking". It is important to rule in or rule out. The main way to do this is to put the vaginal fluid under a microscope and check for ferning, which means when the fluid dries it looks like fern leaves or snowflake crystals. There's no way to do this without except by a vaginal exam for collection of the fluid. I just find it really surprising that she claims her water broke at 4:30am yet when she called her doctor it seems as if both of them agreed to "take their time" and just wait until well over 12 hours later just to rule in or out ROM.

What kind of doctor, with the PRE-TERM high risk pregnancy of the governor in her hands would act so nonchalantly about telling her to seek care when the governor was literally several thousand miles away?

Let's put this another way. Let's say you were pregnant and at 4:00am you thought your water broke and you were having contractions. Let's say that you called your doctor and they essentially told you "don't worry about it, finish your work day, come seem me at mignight". Then let's say your baby didn't come out until the 26 hour mark and then you or the baby developed a serious infection. Wouldn't you be really, really upset with the judgment of that doctor?

Also, why exactly is a family doctor (not an OB), performing management the pregnancy of a high profile official when it is such a high risk pregnancy without apparent OB backup. Gov Palin is 44, with an alleged Down's syndrome child, who's water broke in a preterm baby. On several accounts this is a high risk case. Usually high risk cases have an OB involved. However, I do understand that in certain places in Alaska, family doctors do have to act outside the normal realm of care. But then again, this is the Governor of the state, it's not some poor fisherman's wife from Seward.

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The article, and other articles, raise the "she didn't look pregnant" point. Now, last night some folks here linked us photos that were supposedly taken on March 19th, 2008 where Palin looked VERY pregnant. They were not embedded photos and therefore could be photoshop specials but they do look real. However, there are other photos, videos, and first hand accounts of Palin that explicitly show or state a definite lack of showing any signs of pregnancy. It's just a weird piece of the puzzle that doesn't add up.

Furthermore, it seems extremely implausible that Bristol Palin would legitimately be out of school for 4 to 8 months because of "Mono". Mono is a throat infection caused by Epstein Barr Virus. It can result in severe fatigue, which generally lasts 2 to 6 weeks but sometimes can last months. However, it is rare that people have to take off more than 2 weeks from week or school. When I say rare, I mean like I've never heard of it in over 12 years of experience. I'm not saying that it doesn't happen, it's just that if it does it's really, really rare. Frankly, I just don't buy it. Perhaps she was depressed, perhaps it was something else. However, it just doesn't pass the smell test.

And speaking of the smell test, I think that's why this bothers so many of us. Usually, I run the other direction in "stories" like these. You can never tell what the truth might be and even if you did, without a DNA sample or a witness, you can never prove it. Furthermore, it's all lifetime TV stuff, which I find boring to no end. However, in this case and like so many things with the Palins , things just don't smell right. Everything about her being the VP pick is improbable and bizarre.

So, why do I care people might rightly ask. To be honest, I wonder that myself. I think it is because I've literally been in a funk for 8 years because we put Bush in the White House. To me, McCain does not = Bush, but Palin in fact does = Bush. An incurious, oafish, inexperienced, Christian Evangelical with a backwards social agenda is the core of what Bush is. That both were/are being marketed on their likeability factor (and I have to admit both Bush and Palin do have a magnetic quality) and not on the fact the fact that both would be really, rad bad for the country is extremely similar and unsettling.

I've probably spent too much time on this baby thing as it is and I hope someone proves it for me one way or the other.

Here's the article in question:

http://www.adn.com/626/story/382864.html

Palins' child diagnosed with Down syndrome

FAMILY FEELS BLESSED: Back at work already, governor says she wasn't in labor in Texas.

By LISA DEMER
[email protected]

Published: April 22nd, 2008 01:11 AM
Last Modified: April 22nd, 2008 12:05 PM

EARLY ARRIVAL

Palin was in Texas last week for an energy conference of the National Governors Association when she experienced signs of early labor. She wasn't due for another month.

Early Thursday -- she thinks it was around 4 a.m. Texas time -- she consulted with her doctor, family physician Cathy Baldwin-Johnson, who is based in the Valley and has delivered lots of babies, including Piper, Palin's 7-year-old.

Palin said she felt fine but had leaked amniotic fluid and also felt some contractions that seemed different from the false labor she had been having for months.

"I said I am going to stay for the day. I have a speech I was determined to give," Palin said. She gave the luncheon keynote address for the energy conference...