After four miscarriages, my daughter was born on Mother's Day, explains SHARON NOONAN
MOTHER’S DAY this year was a very special day for myself and my husband Michael, for it was the day our beautiful daughter, Hannah, was born after we went through four miscarriages.
Michael and I decided to start trying for a family shortly after we got married in April 2006 as neither of us were spring chickens. I was 34 and he was 36. In September of that year, I had my first miscarriage at five weeks. My doctor told me it was a blighted ovum. I hadn’t even realised I was pregnant until I started to bleed.
I wasn’t terribly bothered by this at the time. Lots of women miscarry the first time and most women I knew had some story, whether it was difficulty getting pregnant or miscarriage. The following year, I was pregnant again and everything seemed to be going grand.
It was four or five days before Christmas and I was nine weeks pregnant when my consultant brought me in. He told me things were not looking as they should and there was a 50-50 chance I was going to miscarry. The day before Christmas Eve, I started to bleed and I lost the baby.
The following year in the autumn of 2008, I fell pregnant for the third time. I was very nervous this time that something would go wrong again. I was five weeks gone when I lost my third baby.
At this stage, I was being treated as a recurrent miscarriage case and I was sent for tests to Limerick Hospital to find out if there was something wrong. There was no abnormality found and no specific treatment recommended.
I was relieved at this news as I had been worried I might have a problem that couldn’t be fixed. I thought we were just very unlucky.
In 2009, we tried again for another baby and, again, I had no problem getting pregnant. Five weeks into the pregnancy, I had my fourth miscarriage in October. The following month, we went to the annual remembrance service at the Miscarriage Association of Ireland in Dublin.
I now had four angels in heaven. In my head, I was a mummy but my babies weren’t with me. We decided at that stage we just couldn’t go through another miscarriage.
Then, a friend of mine heard a radio interview between Marian Finucane and a woman who had a number of miscarriages and who went to London for a test which identified that she had elevated natural killer (NK) cells. She had treatment and went on to have two successful pregnancies.
I could not find anyone in Ireland who did this test and had to travel to the Lister Fertility Clinic in London. A blood test by Dr Yau Thum, a specialist in reproductive immunology, identified that I had elevated natural killer cells, which were killing off the foetus when I became pregnant.
He recommended that the next time I was pregnant, I should take an infusion of IVIg, an intravenous immunoglobulin. I did some research into this myself and, on my request, Dr Thum changed my prescription from IVIg, which is a blood product, to Intralipid, the first safe fat emulsion for human use.
Evidence from both animal and human studies suggest that Intralipid administered intravenously may enhance implantation and help maintain pregnancy. Dr Thum recommended that I do an early pregnancy test and take the Intralipid within a week to 10 days of a positive test to make my pregnancy viable.
We had a big surprise party planned for Michael’s 40th and I was caught up in that. About two weeks later, I found out I was pregnant. I had my prescription of Intralipid from Lister, which I had administered by the point-of-care nursing service at its centre in Dundrum at four and eight weeks of my pregnancy.
I was a lot more optimistic with this pregnancy than the previous ones, but I was still very stressed. It was always in the back of my mind that it might not work out and every day further into the pregnancy meant that if I lost the baby, it would be even worse than the previous times.
I had a lot of kidney infections and was always very itchy. At my 36-week check-up, my consultant said I might have borderline gestational diabetes but ruled out rehydration.
I had read about a condition called cholestasis, which caused itchiness and could lead to complications for mother and foetus. The doctor did a blood test and found my liver salts were 98 when they should have been 14.
I was induced at 37 weeks and our beautiful baby girl was born on Mother’s Day weighing seven pounds, three ounces. It was such a significant day. We had waited so long for her and she was at a risk of being stillborn because of my condition.
The cord was wrapped around her neck when she was born, but the staff at Limerick Regional Hospital were fantastic. They were all so calm. We named her named Hannah Rose after both of our grandmothers. My grandmother died last year and I do feel she interceded in the birth.
I always said I would not go down the IVF route because we did not have a problem getting pregnant, our problem was keeping the baby. I always had a plan B which, I think, is what kept me going through all of the miscarriages. If I was not blessed with a child, I planned to go abroad to work in a developing country.
I wanted to tell my story because I know how hard it is to suffer miscarriage after miscarriage and I thought it might help somebody else in the same situation.
This test for natural killer cells in pregnancy is not widely available in Ireland and it is vital that there is dialogue about its benefits. There are many couples in Ireland who have suffered recurrent miscarriage who I feel would benefit from this knowledge.
This test has changed my life and that of my husband. It has had such a happy ending for us.
In conversation with Michelle McDonagh
NATURAL KILLER CELLS: WHAT ARE THEY?
Reproductive immunology is a service offered by a few fertility clinics in the UK. There is much debate about the role of the immune system in promoting or preventing a healthy pregnancy.
Natural killer (NK) cells are immune system cells that normally help the body fight infections. Some doctors believe that a woman’s NK cells may be attacking the foetus as an invader. They may suggest testing the blood for high levels of NK cells and then using drugs such as steroids, intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) or tumour necrosis factor (TNF) to suppress the action of these cells.
However, the Human Fertilisation Embryo Authority in the UK says there is no convincing evidence that immune rejection of the foetus does actually ever happen in women with fertility problems.
It says these tests and any treatment based on them are in their early days and there is very little scientific evidence to show they are effective.
