Our first daughter, Eliza, was stillborn in February 2018. We were devastated. I had a low risk pregnancy with scans at 12 and 20 and everything had gone very smoothly.
At 40 weeks and 5 days, I went into natural labour and excitedly we headed to the hospital only to have our world come crashing down with the words ‘I am so sorry – your baby doesn’t have a heartbeat.”
Our perfect little girl had died from a very rare fetomaternal haemorrhage.
We heard about Tommy’s shortly after Eliza and we said we would love to go to a Tommy’s clinic if we were ever blessed to have another baby.
In January 2019, we had a preconception phone consultation with Professor Heazell, clinical director of the Tommy's Stillbirth Research Centre.
He explained to us that Eliza had actually died as a result of my placenta being too small and unwell. This new information floored us. Prof Heazell gave us some guidance should we fall pregnant again and said he would happily see us in Manchester if needed.
The following year after a successful round of IVF, we found out we were pregnant with Eliza’s little sibling. Our bereavement midwife let Tommy’s know immediately and put forward a referral to be checked at the rainbow clinic.
We drove to Manchester twice from our home in Norfolk to be checked by Prof Heazell and his team. Professor Heazell and his team were so compassionate and understanding. We really felt like we were in the best hands.
He checked the blood flow from the placenta and talked me through everything. Liberty was delivered by a gentle abdominal birth on 2nd Nov 2020 at exactly 38 weeks.
We were over the moon that Eliza’s little sister arrived safely. We named her Liberty. Luckily, Liberty was delivered early because after my placenta was analysed it showed that it started to fail again.
We will forever be thankful to Tommy’s for their research and medical care.
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