A tight, persistent pain in the lower abdomen chased Jasmine Zapata from class that morning, forcing her upstairs to rest on a couch at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison.It was Sept. 20, and Zapata was in her 25th week of pregnancy, just past the midpoint.
She neither smoked nor drank. She knew the importance of proper prenatal care – of course she did – and had followed the doctor?s orders to the letter. Zapata, after all, was in her second year of medical school. The 23-year-old Milwaukee native had carried her first pregnancy to term and had a beautiful son to show for it: MJ, now 18 months old.