Mom Who Suffered 13 Miscarriages Celebrates the Birth of Her Rainbow Baby
Liudmila Fadzeyeva/Shutterstock
June 18, 2019
A mom from the U.K. is making international headlines for her story of strength, hope, and determination. After suffering 13 pregnancy losses in 10 years, Laura Worsley is now celebrating the birth of her miracle baby, Ivy, who was born last fall.
The 35-year-old from Kenilworth, Warwickshire in the U.K. suffered her first heartbreaking miscarriage with her husband Dave in 2008. Over the next two years, she suffered three more pregnancy losses. That's when she was referred to Professor Siobhan Quenby and the Biomedical Research Unit at University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) who were conducting "world-leading" miscarriage research.
Quenby diagnosed Worsley with antiphospholipid syndrome, an autoimmune disease that makes blood more likely to clot and can result in miscarriage and stillbirth, as well as Chronic Histiocytic Intervillositis (CHI), a rare placental inflammatory disease. Sadly, although she was receiving dedicated care, Worsley lost two boys in the process, Leo and Graceson, at 17 weeks and 20 weeks respectively.
"I don't know how I coped, to be honest," Worsley told the BBC. "Dave stayed strong for me but when we lost the boys, he really struggled with that. It was all I lived for — I lost years of my life. I just thought, if I can't have a baby, I don't see a point in my life."
Despite facing heartache after heartache, Worsley was determined to keep trying.
"I wasn't sure I wanted to try again," she said. "But Professor Quenby said she had helped women with this successfully. I thought if there's that one bit of hope, I had to try again. I spoke to Dave about it, and he felt the same. I told myself, this is the last time I'm doing this."
In March 2018, she was treated with steroids that were used to suppress her immune system so the pregnancy could progress beyond 24 weeks, and she conceived naturally for the 14th time. She took drugs to curb blood clotting and went into labor at 30 weeks. Her daughter Ivy was born via emergency C-section weighing just 1 pound, 7 ounces. After 11 weeks in the NICU, during which the newborn fought a bout of bronchitis, Ivy was given the green light to head home.
A woman who suffered 13 miscarriages, is spending her first Christmas as a mum. Under the expert care of our amazing BRU team, Laura took part in world-leading miscarriage research and in March, she discovered she was pregnant again. Baby Ivy was born in November 😍 pic.twitter.com/rap7QWWjkI
— UHCW NHS Trust (@nhsuhcw) December 25, 2018
Worsley expressed her gratitude and disbelief, which she's still experiencing to this day. “Even now, nine months on, I can't believe she's actually mine," the new mom said. “I cannot thank the research and the maternity teams at University Hospital enough, they have helped me to have the baby I always dreamt of. It feels like all of my Christmases have come at once. It's so important to be able to make a difference for anyone else going through what I went through."
She hopes her story will "give others the hope and strength to carry on even when things seem impossible. ... I look at her and think 'miracles do happen.' I'd read about other people's miracles, and now I've got mine.”
After paying witness to Worsley's journey, Professor Quenby believes the mom's heartwarming story will serve as an inspiration to others, explaining to the BBC: "Laura's case is benefitting people across the world. Many in her situation would have given up, but she just kept going."
