Woman Who Had 13 Miscarriages Welcomes Baby Girl

An undated stock image of an infant. (Christiana Bella/Pixabay)

An English woman said she suffered 13 miscarriages before giving birth to a baby girl.

Laura Worsley, 35, from Kenilworth, said 11 pregnancies of her’s ended in the first trimester, the Daily Mail reported. Two children were lost at 17 and 20 weeks, she said.

Worsley was diagnosed with two conditions that impeded on her ability to have children. The first miscarriage she suffered was in 2008.

She and husband Dave Worsley said she took steroids and medication before welcoming her daughter, Ivy, who is now nine months old.

Worsley told the BBC on June 14: “Even now, nine months on, I can’t believe she’s actually mine.”

According to the BBC, she was diagnosed with Antiphospholipid syndrome.

“We were told a high dose of folic acid might sort it, but it didn’t,” said Worsley. “We took part in trials, did all the tests and tried different medications, hoping something would work.”

“I don’t know how I coped, to be honest,” added Laura. “Dave stayed strong for me but when we lost the boys, he really struggled with that.

Worsley added: “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.”

After the initial diagnosis didn’t solve the problem, she was diagnosed with Chronic Histiocytic Intervillositis, which prevents the body from getting pregnant.

“It was causing my placenta to die in places,” said the new mother. “I wasn’t sure I wanted to try again. 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.”

She added that during the 14th attempt, “this is the last time I’m doing this.”

Quenby told the BBC that steroids were used to suppress Worsley’s immune system and drugs stopped her blood from clotting.

“The steroids do have side effects,” said Quenby. “But we both decided it was worth one more go.”

Worsley and her husband said they could never imagine having a child.

“We didn’t really tell anyone. It was the hardest thing to keep in but the hardest thing to share. I just kept thinking if we tell people, we’re going to jinx it,” she said.

When the baby was born, the daughter was taken to a neonatal incubator in intensive care and doctors warned she could develop sepsis.

“I just thought, she’s a fighter. She just kept going forward all the time, she never went back,” said Worsley.

After 11 weeks in the hospital, Ivy was able to go home.

Worsley said that she now wants other women to know that there is hope.

“It’s so important to be able to make a difference for anyone else going through what I went through,” Worsley told The Independent. “Through my story, I want to give others the hope and strength to carry on even when things seem impossible.”