Woman who weighs 37 pounds gives birth to healthy baby

[matcom]

<snip>

Eloysa Vasquez didn't need any lectures about a high-risk pregnancy. When you're 38 years old and weigh only 37 pounds, when your bones are so brittle from a rare disease that you're only 3 feet tall and you have been in a wheelchair since you were 10, life itself is a high-risk venture.

So even after two miscarriages, she and 5-foot-8-inch husband Roy were more determined than deterred, despite warnings from some doctors about potential danger. When her third pregnancy made it past the first trimester, the Tulare couple got help from specialists, eventually winding up with Dr. James Smith, an obstetrician at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford.

"The biggest concern for Eloysa has been paying attention to how she was feeling as the pregnancy went on," Smith said Thursday.

Right around the start of this year, about at the 29th week of her pregnancy, Vasquez moved to a temporary residence near Packard. Just in case.

"My breathing started to get a little heavy," said Vasquez, who has a severe type of osteogenesis imperfecta, a genetic bone disorder. She had added 20 pounds to her 37-pound frame, and her uterus was pressuring her abdomen. "I didn't need oxygen or anything like that."

What she did need was a C-section. Smith said her normal-sized uterus was doing fine, but there was no way her tiny body and its brittle bones could handle natural childbirth.

Even then, Smith said, the birth is the riskiest part of all. The routine blood loss from a uterus during childbirth doesn't endanger normal-sized women, but it certainly could threaten Vasquez.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/02/10/BAGDKH60DN1.DTL

[trof]

1. I just can't imagine...um..."having sex" with a 37 pound anything.

I mean, where's the turn on?
Maybe if you're into pedophilia.
gross

[bigwillq]

2. I was just going to post:

How the hell do they have sex?? I mean with her being so brittle and all. Weird.

[supernova]

3. Here she is

She looks like a normal adult, even if she is tiny.

I think it's wonderful she was able to have a child, even with her problems.


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?o=2&f=/c/a/2006/02/10/BAGDKH60DN1.DTL

[bigwillq]

4. I think it's great too!

That she was able to have a baby! Good for her.

I'm still a bit weirded out on how the hell they have sex but it's none of my business.

[supernova]

5. Very carefully?

:shrug:

[bigwillq]

8. I would think so.

:)

[Benfea]

9. It's not the height or the weight that I find disturbing...

…it's doing all that thrusting around someone with brittle bones. *shudder*

No thanks.

[Elidor]

6. There are a number of comments I could make here

But I'm going to show some rare good judgement and refrain.

[CatholicEdHead]

7. I had a Drawn Together flashback from last week's episode

after reading the title.

[Scout1071]

10. Did anyone see the dad? I just saw him on CNN. What was with

him wearing his sunglasses in the pediatric ICU? And throughout the interview.