Accreta Hope Europe
Wednesday 2 July 2014
Saturday 21 June 2014
Jennifer's Story of surviving Accreta twice.
My only desire in life was always to be a mother; since I was young it was all I could imagine. Everything began to fall into place after marrying Jason, the man of my dreams in 2004. I knew my dream of becoming a mother was now within reach. After Jason and I settled into our new roles as husband and wife we felt it was time to expand our family. It was a long eighteen months trying to conceive, always anxiously awaiting the day I could scream out “I’m Pregnant”!
April 2007 I found out I was finally going to
me a mom, I was ecstatic when those two pink lines appeared. That excitement
quickly turned to worry when I began bleeding, which continued for weeks. The
fear that all the bleeding had placed made it very hard to enjoy the pregnancy.
Near the end of the pregnancy at a routine exam the doctors became concerned
when I began to lose weight. They performed another ultrasound and found that
my unborn baby’s growth had stalled and they knew then that something was
definitely wrong.
My dream of a perfect pregnancy and birth were slowly
crashing down. The admitted me immediately and induced the labor, which
progressed rapidly after the epidural was placed. Everything afterwards became
a blur, the babies heart beat was extremely rapid and she struggled to cry and
grasp her first breathes.
The appearance of the placenta was shocking it was
like someone had used it as target practice with a shotgun, it was in what
looked to be a thousand tiny pieces. I remember the feeling of becoming very
cold and like my body was in a state of paralysis.
Me with Jessica |
The doctors took me into
surgery to remove the tiny pieces of placenta they said “it was like picking
out little jigsaw pieces “this took hours and also required me to receive
multiple blood transfusions. Through surviving this undiagnosed Accreta my
uterus also survived.
Jessica |
Jessica |
I later gave birth to a beautiful baby boy in
2010. I was never warned about the reoccurrence of Placenta Accreta however the
doctors did take precaution and deliver him by Cesarean. The pregnancy and
birth of my son went perfect. I now had a beautiful daughter and handsome son
that I loved more than anything but still had the feeling that my family was
not complete.
Baby Joshua |
I fell pregnant with my youngest daughter in
2012; this pregnancy carried all of the same pains and uncomfortableness as my
first without the bleeding. I went into preterm labor at 28 weeks thanks to
modern medicine they were able to stall the labor.
The next nine weeks dragged
on so slowly all I could do was pray that I made it to full term. I had a
nagging feeling that something was wrong but tried not to overly concern
myself. A cesarean was scheduled at 37 weeks, after doing different blood draws
and screenings to prepare for the delivery they discovered the hospital could
not find a cross match for my blood, this was deeply concerning as I was told that
I was unable to deliver until they found a cross- match. No match, no surgery,
it took seven days, numerous blood drives that collected from over 2,000
different donors for them to finally find a match and one match only (I
developed a rare blood antibody over time due to pregnancy hormones,
transfusions, genetics etc.).
September 14th, 2012 was the big day
my family was finally going to be complete. Isabelle was born and everything
went great, I do remember my doctor telling me “we were very lucky that the
placenta and uterus were quite sticky”. Isabelle and I were released and I
realised how truly blessed I was to have had my dreams of motherhood fulfilled.
Me with Baby Isabelle |
A few weeks after the delivery I began bleeding
heavily, over a ten day period I found myself getting checked and scanned four
different times, they had found multiple blood clots. I later began to
hemorrhage and my doctor transferred my care to the main hospital.
I spent the
next 5 weeks in the hospital on heavy medication, being repeatedly that I wasn’t
going to make it. The reason being is that I now have this extremely rare blood
antibody which changed again after giving birth to Isabelle.
My blood was sent
to Holland where they identified the antibody and also that only 0.04% of the
world’s population would be a match. During the identification process the
hospital was able to keep me stable there was no blood in Malta that could
replenish what I was losing. Finally a match was found in Bristol England which
was flown to Malta for the only surgery they could perform.
The surgeons had
decided my fate and had told me if I did not have a hysterectomy I would most
likely bleed to death, this was extremely hard to hear but I knew it was for
the best for me and my family. The pain I felt afterwards during my recovery
was horrific, and the loss I felt was unbearable but looking at my children I
knew it was all worth it.
Scan of the stuff that was inside of me. |
The pathology report afterwards confirmed yet
another undiagnosed Placenta Accreta, this time it was actually classified as
Increta. There was a hole going straight through to my uterus. I am a Survivor
not once but twice! I feel like I have been blessed in so many ways and realize
how lucky I am to still be here to live that dream I had always desired.
Isabelle in the NICU |
Jessica |
Me with Jessica. |
My Two Accreta Girls. |
I feel that everything happens for a reason and through this I have met some wonderful people, and feel honoured to have met such strong women in the the support groups. I am now working with the Hope for Accreta Foundation to give back, to help support women, create awareness, and increase blood donation, without which I would not be here today to enjoy my beautiful family.
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