Our miracle baby...16 years after doctors told me my womb was ‘uninhabitable’
A WOMAN who was told by doctors that she had no chance of ever having a baby has given birth after 16 years of heartache.
Esther George was diagnosed with endometriosis aged 16 and waited eight years for an NHS referral for help – but it never happened.
Medics said her condition – which causes scarring in the fallopian tubes and ovaries – was so severe it had left her womb “uninhabitable”.
But after extensive surgery, Esther was able to have fertility treatment and now she and husband Andrew have welcomed son Caleb.
Esther, 32, a marketing manager from Hull, said: “We have been waiting such a long time for Caleb and now he’s here we can’t quite believe it.We know what a miracle he is.”
That miracle extended to just after his birth when Esther needed a blood transfusion to save her life.
Emergency
The couple’s journey to parenthood began with the surgery to remove the scarring in September 2016. She said: “He had said my womb had been uninhabitable, so there had been no chance of having a baby.”
They had to wait 18 months for Esther’s body to recover and wanted to start IVF treatment in 2020, but were unable to because of lockdown.
Then Andrew, an agricultural services manager, caught Covid, so it was not until March 2021 that they began treatment at Hull and East Riding Fertility clinic.
An embryo was placed in Esther’s womb. She said: “It was a tense twoweek wait, but then I did a pregnancy test and it had two positive lines on it. It was amazing.”
But, after 36 weeks, doctors could not find the baby’s heartbeat. An emergency caesarean was planned before the heartbeat was then located – only for Esther to go into labour days later. She haemorrhaged three and half litres of blood straight after the January delivery.
She said: “Andrew thought he was going to lose me and be bringing Caleb up on his own. Luckily, the doctors stopped the bleeding and I was given five blood transfusions.” Esther
then battled pancreatitis: “That was incredibly difficult being separated from him when he had just been born. But now we feel like the luckiest parents in the world.”
Pam Andrew, from Hull and East Riding Fertility, said: “We were delighted to help Esther and her husband have their baby son.”