Three weeks postpartum, I began to bleed. Per my doctors instructions, I was to stay on the Lovenox injections and wein myself off over a month. I was down to one shot a day.

I had been feeling a bit weak but just attributed it to sleepless nights with a new born and the constant supply and demand waltz I played with my breast milk. I can still hear the sound of the breast pump. "Salma Hayak...Salma Hayak..." I know that sounds weird and I thought so at the time as well but I swear that's what the machine sounded like over and over again!

The bleeding got so heavy I paged my doctor and I never called my doctor. I never wanted to inconvience her. Sounds weird but I never thought my complaints were worth bothering a doctor. So I paged her.

She is out of town but another doctor, who I have never met or heard of, calls me back. He asks me how many pads I'm soaking through every hour. I tell him I'm bleeding contantly and soaking a pad a minute. He tells me to meet him at the hospital immediately.

Thankfully my husband's brother lives around the corner. He leaves his two sons and pregnant wife to come watch over his 3 week old nephew.

We get to the hospital and the seat of the car is covered. I really start to panic.

The doctor finally arrives and attempts to massage my uterus. That was more painful than childbirth alone. Of course I had an eppidural so probably not quite.

He is unable to contract my uterus and believes there are products of conception left over. Placental tissue. He orders me to get an ultrasound and says I'll have to have a D&C immediately.

The ultrasound showed a large mass.

It's 2am and they tell my husband it would take about a half hour...almost 3 hours later they are done.

I'm back in the labor and delivery recovery area. I'm pretty much unaware of what was going on at that point. All the nurses kept saying they were sorry for my loss. I guess the D&C on my chart was a huge red flag for miscarriage. In retrospect, that was death. It was the last time my uterus was the way nature intended and the death of my fertility.