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A 40-year-old mom who thought she was going through menopause was stunned to find out she was pregnant after doctors advised her not to have any more children.
Verity Degg and her husband, Jason (43), had struggled to conceive. Following 11 rounds of IVF their son Jack (now eight) was born. After suffering seven miscarriages, the couple had given up hope that they’d have another child when their daughter Aimee was stillborn at 32 weeks.
“After the miscarriages and what I went through with Aimee doctors said I’d been through too much and shouldn’t try for another,” Verity says.
A post-mortem revealed that Aimee had Edwards’ Syndrome – a rare and severe disorder which limits the life of a baby to just a few days.
“Throughout the pregnancy, I didn’t feel her move much and they found out I had too much fluid.
“Someone had mentioned they could see the outline of the baby in my stomach and I knew that wasn't right.
“My husband was away so I took myself to the hospital and told them ‘I think she’s dead’,” she says.
After Jack was born, the couple had begun fostering and adopted two children in 2011, now aged eight and six.
But last year, to the couple’s surprise, Verity discovered that she was pregnant with Olly despite doctors telling her that her body wouldn’t cope with another pregnancy.
“We were due to go on holiday to America but I started to feel unwell. For about two weeks I was feeling really sick.
“I was 39 and convinced it was down to menopause. I know friends who’d been through it at 36.
“I was scared to be happy because I kept thinking ‘I can’t go through this again. I can’t lose another baby’.
“We went to America and I kept taking pregnancy tests to check it was still there,” she says.
The couple forked out for a Harmony prenatal test – a DNA examination of the mother’s blood which can identify if the baby is at risk of suffering from Edwards’ Syndrome or other chromosomal abnormalities – but results came back negative.
“With Olly part of me started thinking it was going to be okay but I was a midwife’s nightmare, I’d worry about every little twinge.
“They were scanning me every 12 weeks and everything seemed to be going really well,” she says.
But her fears were put to rest once Olly, who weighed a healthy 3kg, was born via C-section.
“We’ve got a lovely family now. It feels as if it’s complete and I think throughout it all we have also helped other children,” she says.
Sources: Magazine Features
Pictures: CATERS/WWW.MAGAZINEFEATURES.CO.ZA
