My husband and I prayed for years to be blessed with a baby. We were hoping for a spontaneous miracle, but when that didn’t happen, we looked for some medical intervention. We gathered up all of our savings, cashed in retirement funds, sold belongings, and eventually scraped up enough money to pay for one round of in vitro fertilization.
We could only afford to try it once, so it just had to work! And it did. We were so overjoyed!
Our joy quickly turned to fear, however. I had bleeding right away and was sure I was miscarrying. But blood tests and ultrasounds revealed I was still pregnant. My precious baby was hanging on. By 12 weeks I finally stopped bleeding and I thought it would be smooth sailing for the rest of the pregnancy.
I was wrong.
At the 20 week ultrasound we eagerly anticipated learning our baby’s gender. I would have been happy with a boy, but I truly longed for a daughter. The ultrasound technician announced, “It’s a girl!”
I was so happy I felt like I was going into shock. It was all a dream come true.
A few minutes later the doctor took us into his office and said we needed to discuss some things. He told us there were several problems he saw on the ultrasound.
My heart sank.
First, he said our baby’s brain measurements were a little off, and she might have a genetic disorder. It could be Downs syndrome, it could be Trisomy 18, which is fatal, or it could be nothing at all.
While I was trying to wrap my mind around the possibility that my baby girl could die, he told us that wasn’t the worst part.
There was a life threatening problem with my placenta. I had placenta percreta. He explained that my placenta was growing all the way through my uterus and was starting to grow into other organs, like a cancer.
I could die.
The longer I was pregnant the more dangerous it would be for me. I would have about a 1 in 20 chance of dying at full term.
That’s when he offered me an abortion.
My husband and I were horrified. We immediately rejected that. It was never an option for us. What would make my daughter’s life less valuable than mine? She was just as alive as me– just as much a person. If one or both of us was going to die, that would be left up to God to decide.
The next few months were filled with worry and prayer. A c-section was scheduled 6 weeks before her due date to give us the best chance of survival.
The surgery started smoothly, our baby girl arrived and was rushed off to the NICU before I even got a glimpse. Then the blood drained from my face and my body went cold.
The placenta had ripped open several major blood vessels, and I was bleeding out. Three surgeons and countless nurses worked feverishly to stop the bleeding and patch up all the tears. They had to remove my uterus and sew up holes in my bladder. In the end, I had lost about four and a half liters of blood.
I came very close to dying that day, but I didn’t. And my beautiful four and a half pound daughter was healthy and perfect! She had no health problems, and her brain was completely normal.
It was a long and difficult recovery for me, but all the pain was well worth it. Our daughter has brought us nothing but blessings! We thank God for her every day.
This story was submitted to us by Jana.
