Mom’s menopause turned out to be miracle baby after years of struggling to conceive
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.
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