Baby planning and Standard of Care Issues

Hi all!
I hope you had a lovely and entertaining holiday with your families and friends. Our holidays were busy, on top of hectic, with a dash of crazy. My stress even manifested itself in the form of a stye in my left eye. Be thankful if you have no clue what one of those is.
I decided it would be better to start my post holiday posts with something decidedly non-holiday/resolution/etc. Baby Planning.
I know that many of you are going to say that you can't exactly plan a baby. You can start trying to get pregnant during a certain time frame, but your actual date of conception and due date are at the mercy of a higher power.
Husband and I have been talking a lot about when we would like to try for baby #2 and we are both very sure as to when. This also brought about the discussion of prenatal care. I'm not sure if you understand how military health care works so I'll break down simply. There are two types of Tricare, Standard and Prime. Those who are at E-6 and above pay grade are given a choice between the two. The most prominent difference being that you do not pay any type of deductible for medical care under Prime. Of course we chose Prime being that we weren't interested in paying if we didn't have to. There is a major problem with this. The level of care that you receive in military facilities where pregnancy is concerned is adequate at best.
My experiences during my first pregnancy have lead me to decide to switch to Standard for my next baby so I can see a private doctor. Let me walk you through a pregnancy with Prime and strictly military health facilities. When you call the doctor to confirm pregnancy they tell you to come in for a blood test. No ultrasound. The blood test confirms your pregnancy and you are assigned to an OBGYN. In my case, the OBGYN visits took place in the Army hospital. Upon my first visit I was kind of jarred by the fact that I had to take a number from a Deli machine and wait until my number was called. First red flag.
I was never guaranteed that I would see the same OBGYN, nope I got whoever was available. I don't understand how they could see important factors that might lead them to believe that I had issues/complications. This was a major problem because I did have an issue, I had a condition known as Hypermesis Gravidarum (HG).

"Hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) is a severe form of nausea and vomiting in pregnancy. It is generally described as unrelenting, excessive pregnancy-related nausea and/or vomiting that prevents adequate intake of food and fluids. If severe and/or inadequately treated, it is typically associated with:

• loss of greater than 5% of pre-pregnancy body weight (usually over 10%)
• dehydration and production of ketones
• nutritional deficiencies
• metabolic imbalances
• difficulty with daily activities" (HER Foundation, 2013).

If I'd had the same OBGYN the entire time she would have noticed that I was gradually losing about 20 lbs throughout my pregnancy. That I was getting sick so often that I turned up at the ER because my throat was bleeding. That I could barely get through daily activities without vomiting.

(At 26 weeks most women are complaining about gaining too much weight and swelling. My pants were falling down because I had lost too much weight.)

Eating was a daily challenge, I knew that I had to put healthy foods into my body to nourish my developing baby. The doctor finally noticed my significant weight loss after I was well into my second trimester. I was put on an anti-nausea med that is most often prescribed to cancer patients going through chemo therapy. In order to be able to even look at food or keep it down I had to take this medication regularly.

The story does have a good ending however. My daughter was born two weeks early, and she was an adorably healthy little peanut at 6 lbs 9.5oz. I finished my BA in Health and Wellness this past year, and because of what I had gone through I became vigilant about researching prenatal health. I had no idea that there was an actual name for the condition that I had. I learned that I should expect and fight for a better standard of care for myself and my unborn child. If you don't do it, no one will. My next pregnancy will be better, because I will make sure that I am given the care that I need.