After much resistance, I wound up on complete bed rest by week 22 of my pregnancy. Despite increasing doses of Terbutaline, I continued to have 24-hour a day contractions which I had to monitor to ensure they didn't become too frequent. They would usually heat up around dinner time and it would be touch and go for a while as to whether a trip to the hospital was warranted. When I did go to Labor and Delivery to be monitored, it was difficult to accurately document the contractions because the equipment is designed to measure stronger labor contractions on a full-term mother. It came down to a very subjective experience of trying to describe the nature and intensity of the contractions. By definition, a labor contraction is one which dilates the cervix, so the true test was a cervical check. But that in itself is a subjective thing because the estimate of dilation can vary from doctor to doctor. Also, it is not a good idea to be examining the cervix too much. However, my cervix did not change significantly.

I would be sent home with the same instructions and more Terbutaline. After I got to very high doses of the drug without a significant reduction in contractions, I was hospitalized for three days to be monitored and weaned off the medication. I returned home a little anxious without medication, but determined to figure out a way to manage my contractions.

The whole time I had been asking, "Why am I having these contractions?" Nobody could say for sure. They started right after I had my amniocentesis, so I wondered if that was the cause. Since I knew that the function of uterine contractions is to begin the labor process by helping to dilate the cervix, I wondered about the less powerful contractions — was there a way to distinguish more definitively between Braxton-Hicks contractions and real labor contractions?

I regarded myself as a case study as I tried to determine what else might influence these contractions and what I could do to manage them. Since I felt that my baby's life was at stake every time these contractions heated up, I became quite anxious. I felt very helpless and out of control. I believe that my emotional state may have exacerbated the contractions, creating a vicious cycle.

So I applied all the self-management techniques I knew. I used relaxation techniques, self-hypnosis, warm baths, cognitive-behavioral interventions. I even tried massage and acupuncture. The good news is that I did succeed in managing these contractions on my own at home for the remainder of my pregnancy. It was a day by day process, but I did it. Had I not been able to manage them on my own, the next step would have been to be put on a Terbutaline pump, which would have helped stabilize the level of Terbutaline in my system better than oral doses. I'm glad I avoided that.