I had 9 rounds of IVF, 5 embryo transfers and a loss over 10 years before I finally conceived our son, Jaivin.
We were overjoyed, of course, but it wasn’t a smooth journey.
I was 34 weeks and 5 days pregnant when I was admitted to hospital with high blood pressure and problems with my kidney and liver function. My waters broke at that stage too.
I kept asking if I had pre-eclampsia but as I had no protein in my urine it couldn’t be confirmed, although my blood pressure kept rising and my kidney and liver function reduced.
At 35 weeks, I was sent home but told to come in every day for monitoring as I couldn’t feel my baby moving after having lost all my waters.
The plan was to deliver him by 37 weeks but a day after I left hospital, my contractions started naturally. Jaivin arrived 27 hours later, at 35 weeks and 2 days. He weighed 3lb 11oz.
We spent 12 days in hospital and I was finally diagnosed with pre-eclampsia after they found protein in my urine during labour.
Jaivin – JJ, as we call him – is now a very energetic 3-year-old who doesn’t seem to have experienced any lasting effects from being born prematurely. I’m grateful for that every day, even though the experience has left a lasting impact on me.
We made the difficult decision not to try to have another baby, because of our struggle to conceive and because of the chance that I might develop severe pre-eclampsia during another pregnancy.
I feel incredibly lucky to be mum to my beautiful healthy boy and although I would have loved another child, I couldn’t risk anything that might put another baby – or myself – in danger, now I have a little boy who needs me too.
Since having a premature birth, I’ve discovered at least 3 of my aunties and 2 of my friends also had premature babies. I hope we can change things for others in future through research, particularly at Tommy’s National Centre for Preterm Birth Research.
