When I was pregnant, I felt that my body was betraying me. I thought to myself, I have been through so much in my life, why couldn’t I just have an easy pregnancy? Once I arrived in the U.S. and started my OBgyn visits, it was like every week I was being told something was wrong…with me, not the baby. In fact, that was the only thing that kept me going was that; every scan and test of the baby growing inside me was “his perfect,” but my body was broken, and I felt weak.
Anyway, I thought since I started off my Salone experience with blog posts, I should do the same with the U.S. I am approaching this a bit different. Instead of a story like the last one, I’ll share more in a real blog post way, sharing certain experiences specifically around medical and how to navigate based on my experience. I have had people ask me questions about coming back to the U.S., my medical coverage, going through my different diagnoses and how I handled them, etc so here that goes.
So, before I even left Sierra Leone, I knew I had to have medical coverage and this was actually one of my biggest worries given the healthcare system in the U.S. I know it is 100 times better that Sierra Leone, but I was worried about cost and as a black, pregnant woman in the U.S., I’ve heard horror stories about maternal health for black women in the U.S. So I actually applied through healthcare.gov, even though open enrolment was not open yet, pregnancy is considered a special circumstance and also if you are moving from one place to another. So TECHNICALLY I was moving from Sierra Leone to the U.S. After applying, I immediately notified that I qualified for Medicaid. This was a first! All my working years in the U.S., where I have had to have my own health insurance (after coming out from under my parents’) I have always paid a ridiculous amount for health insurance. I didn’t complain though, especially when everyone was complaining about Obamacare because I knew many who couldn’t afford, were getting good coverage for the first time in the lives.
When I got to the U.S. though I still had not received my stuff from my state’s Medicaid office and I had to find an OBgyn and all of that. I googled OBgyns in the area and the first obstacle was COVID. Many of the offices were not seeing new patients OR if they were because they limited how many patients, they saw the closest appointments were weeks out. I had no choice though and finally settled on an appointment that was about three weeks from the time I arrived home. They took Medicaid, which was a plus and the lady on the phone was very helpful in letting me know which insurance I should take through Medicaid once my state reached out. I also called Medicaid to check my status and was told that I should go ahead with my appointments that everything will be reimbursed once approved because coverage is from the date of the application.
I really wanted a black OBgyn, but given all the things I mentioned earlier, I had to make do with what was close by and available and would take Medicaid. The application process honestly was not that difficult. I had to submit a paystub and other verification of income and identity. I would highly recommend those who can qualify to go for it. I didn’t know how important this would be later on as I had so many issues due to my kidney stones. EVERYTHING was covered, including having a nurse come to my house when things got really bad and IV medications at my house when I came down with a bad infection. There are other perks, that I never got to use, like free rides to the hospital, grocery store and so much more.
The other reality is how to deal with the various diagnoses of pregnancy. If you don’t know, there are some things that can happen to you JUST during pregnancy. I got to a point in my pregnancy, where I said, perhaps a shorter list would be- what ISN’T a symptom of pregnancy. When I finally was able to see the OBgyn I realized how much was missing in Sierra Leone and how I also should have pushed more on some of my results. For example, several things were flagged on my bloodwork in Sierra Leone, but when I asked my OBgyn in Sierra Leone, he said the numbers were not that low and not to worry. So when I got to the U.S., since they couldn’t trust that I had a full workup done in Sierra Leone and there are so many tests that I should have had early in pregnancy, they ran all the tests again; from genetic testing to see if there are genetic illnesses my baby will have to checking my iron levels and other blood related issues. For the first time, ever in my life, I found out that I had the sickle cell trait. On top of that, my iron levels were so low and given how far along I was at that point, my doctor was worried that I would not get enough iron in time before delivery. You can read more about how low iron can affect a pregnant woman and baby here. I was diagnosed with iron deficiency anemia in the Peace Corps after we were evacuated from Niger, so I knew I had this issue, but I had gotten it under control when I was in Guinea once I had a healthier diet full of greens. Now though, my doctor was not confident pills or change in diet was enough and I had to get iron transfusions; five of them.
So, I was scheduled twice a week to go in for 30minutes. Sitting there at every visit among cancer patients was quite the feeling. Yes, hematologists deal with all blood related illnesses I came to find out, in fact my nurse told me not to freak out when she first gave me the information because the name for the place I would go to take my infusions had “cancer” in it. I was sitting there one day, I think at my second infusion appointment, having accepted my fate with the iron thing, getting my second infusion when the nurse called. She laughed before she said, “I feel like, every time I call it is not anything good huh?” My heart was racing. She was calling with results from my Glucose test. She said although only one of my numbers were off from the test, it still means I need to be treated as I had Gestational Diabetes. I already had to take the test twice. First there is the one-hour test, where they have you drink this very sugary drink an hour before you go in for your test (no fasting or anything). Apparently that test result wasn’t too clear, so I had to do the 3 hours one, where I had to fast the night before, go in early in the morning, get the drink and every hour they checked my sugar levels. I failed that test and now I was getting ANOTHER diagnosis. I sighed. This one broke me. How am I going to survive this pregnancy? I already have kidney stones, which by that point has seen me in the emergency room twice since I had been home (more on that later in the Kamakwie Princess series) because of infections.
my own personal meal plan
I was told that I could manage my Gestational Diabetes for now with nutrition and exercise, but if my numbers went up, I’d have to get on medication. I was told I had to enroll in a nutrition training class that will lay out everything I’d have to do. I scheduled mine the very next day and went to the class at the hospital. It was just me and the lady giving the class, so it was really personal. She helped with meal plan and advising on how I should eat and what I should eat. See the images for ideas on meal planning and eating well if you have GD.
The GD automatically makes your pregnancy High Risk. Which means you will have to see Maternal and Fetal doctors in addition to your regular OBgyn. These doctors do more closer scans of your fetus. Mostly observing the growth because one of the fears is that pregnant women with GD will have large babies. So I had those visits every month and was given a sheet to check my blood sugar 4times a day. Here is a sample of the sheet. I now know what people with diabetes go through. So if you checked out the link above with GD information, this is something completely out of the control of a pregnant women. It is just something that happens. This is something my nurses and even the nutrition lady who I met with told me, but again, I felt terrible. Having GD during pregnancy increases your chances of getting Type II diabetes. You are 30% likely to get it later on in life in about 15 years. So now, even though I’ve delivered, I have that concern.
I feared for my mental health and thought about a service my friend recommended before, BetterHelp. I paid for like a month or so of sessions. I honestly can’t remember much about how it worked because I didn’t find it useful. The general idea was that it was remote; you had phone conversations but can also journal and send your therapist messages. I found a black therapist, but she was very young. We had two different phone conversations that were about 20 mins each on two different occasions, but she just didn’t say anything that I connected with. The exercises she gave me were also not useful. I don’t know if I was just not in the mind frame to accept the help at that time or what, but that was my experience. Others have found it useful though. What worked for my mental health then was to just literally every day doing mental exercises where I put all my worries away. I had become so paranoid about my health and the health of my baby, so I started listening to programs that were all positive only, watching positive tv shows and even playing video games that I enjoyed. Sometimes in the evenings I did breathing exercises and just cleared my mind.
Thankfully that was the last of the fearful diagnoses and of course as you all know, I delivered safe and sound. Those are the practical, real things I can think of to share and if you all have more questions, perhaps I’ve answered them already in my Mother Series on IG/Facebook, but if not, feel free to message/comment.
P.S. I’ll be migrating my blogs to a new website under one domain SaloneCreatives (SalCreatives), my company. So there’ll be the blog aspect, Voice of the Salone Diaspora, Creative Writing, which is Kamakwie Princess, and SalCreatives, which is my consulting work. Thank you for following all these 11+ years.
Salone Creatives 