Thump the first hundred days full#

Upon hearing this admission, my instinct was to shake the doctorвЂ™s hand, thank him for his time, and find the nearest exit. The high-risk doctor who briefed us on the diagnosis said he hadnвЂ™t seen a case like ours in ten years, despite working in a major hospital, serving one of the biggest cities in the United States.

I planned to drown the problem, whatever it was.Д«ut water and rest didnвЂ™t do the trick, and I was quickly handed off to a fetal cardiologist, who, after examining me, thought we needed to be in the skilled hands of the high-risk OB practice at the hospital. Unhappy to stray from a normal checkup, I remained horizontal and consumed my body weight in liquids for two days. She said the babyвЂ™s heart rate was вЂњon the low side of normalвЂќ and sent me home to rest and drink fluids. When I was twenty-five weeks pregnant, my gynecologist used a handheld Doppler to measure the fetal heart rate. My husband and I stumbled onto one of them halfway through my first pregnancy. This dramatic expansion of our scientific knowledge base has had significant consequences for human health, but blank spots still remain.

Thump the first hundred days full#

Over the past century, collaborative efforts, advances in technology, and a full embrace of the scientific method have created a detailed map of this country. Navigating its diverse terrain requires a spirit of adventure and an ability to translate the blueprint our chemistry has written inside us. The human body is its own country, complete with its own laws and its own language. No one knows by what magic the heart starts beating