Shattered Conception

My guest is Dr. Ann O’Neill. Ann completed her Master’s degree in Environmental Science in 2006, and her PhD in Natural Resource Science & Management in 2015. Excitedly anticipating the arrival of their 4th son in July of 2018 and were shocked to learn Elijah, no longer had a heartbeat at 39 weeks and 6 days of pregnancy. Elijah was stillborn on his due date, July 2nd, 2018. They returned home from the hospital in desperate tears, bewildered, arms aching, and with a million questions. Three months after Elijah’s stillbirth, the autopsy report concluded that the cause of Elijah’s death was “unknown”.  Unhappy with the insufficient answers to basic questions provided by the autopsy, Ann listened to a podcast interview of Dr. Harvey Kliman, a placental pathologist at Yale University. On this episode, Ann discusses learning that Elijah’s death was due to an extremely small placenta that could not provide the oxygen he needed to survive past week 39 of pregnancy. While Ann’s original plan was to continue teach