Cheri Olf

Ron, Cheri, Evan, Aidan

I came to discover sidelines when was on bedrest during my pregnancy last year. I received support from a wonderful Sidelines volunteer during that pregnancy -- which ended happily with the birth of my beautiful, healthy son Aidan, who turned one year old on February 1, 2001! Aidan has an older brother, Evan, who is almost three-and-a-half. (Evan's pregnancy was also high-risk, and I was on bedrest for a shorter time).

I am 32 years old, and my husband, Ron, is 34. In June of this year, we will have been married for 10 years (yikes!). We live in Andover, Massachusetts with our two boys, two cats, and a part-time dog (long story). I work full-time as Assistant Director of Boston University's Computer Career Programs. My husband is an Information Systems Manager. (He's definitely more of a computer geek than I am :)

Now for the technical stuff - I am DES exposed, with an incompetent cervix. I have had four miscarriages, and I have experienced two, terrifying-yet-successful high-risk pregnancies -- the second, complete with multiple hospitalizations, medications, interventions, and three months on complete bedrest (fun with a toddler running around :). My Sidelines volunteer was a tremendous source of support and enouragement for me. I am honored to be of similar assistance to other women experiencing high-risk pregnancies. I have "seen it all" as they say, in terms of the techniques, drugs, etc. that are used in high risk pregnancies. I have had doctors, midwives and nurse practicioners as my clinicians.

My bedrest experience began in the 26th week of my youngest son's pregnancy. I was at work, and started to feel something was "not quite right". By the time I got to the hospital, I was 4 cm dilated, 90% effaced, and having contractions 2 minutes apart. A wonderful cocktail of IV magnesium sulfate, terbutaline and morphine finally stopped the labor. We were very lucky. This scenario happened several more times throughout the balance of the pregnancy, and we were, again, very lucky each time. There was definitely an angel sent to watch over Aidan, because, after all we went through, the little bugger ended up being born at 41 WEEKS! Ugghh! My doctors tell me this is fairly common -- the drugs can interfere with natural labor triggers, and women who went into preterm labor must sometimes be induced.

What came as a shock to me after delivering POST term were people's comments. I expected everyone we knew to be as overjoyed as we were, and congratulate us on our good fortune. Instead, what we got were comments like: "Oh... guess you didn't need all that attention, after all..." or "You could have been running around all this time, instead you got a great vacation - how LUCKY you are!" etc. etc. Not all people reacted this way, but many. Most people will never (thankfully) come to understand how difficult it is to be on bedrest, anxiously counting down the months, weeks, days, even minutes - worrying constantly that the next moment may bring another round of life-threatening pre-term labor, or worrying that their cervix won't do its job. It is for this reason that I have returned to Sidelines as a volunteer, to offer my support, encouragement, and experiences to women going through the most difficult time in their lives.