A mum who suffered 16 m.iscarriages in 20 years has shared her joy at giving birth to two miracle babies after a rollercoaster pregnancy.
When Emma White, 38, from Liverpool, finally gave birth to her daughter Mollie Rose, 12, after suffering 16 m.iscarriages over 20 years, she decided never to try again, to avoid further heart-break. However in 2020, she learned she was pregnant with twins but tragically at a scan, she was told she had suffered a miscarriage at six weeks.
One month later, doctors told her that far from miscarrying the babies, she had actually naturally conceived quads. At nine weeks, Emma began to bleed profusely and felt herself losing her pregnancy.
However she had a poignant dream in which her late grandfather, David, appeared to her and told her the babies were still there.
She rushed to the hospital, and she was told her quads – two sets of identical twins – had suffered a condition called vanishing twin syndrome and that she was still expecting twin girls.
Describing the remainder of her pregnancy as ‘amazing’, she was induced at 37 weeks and delivered two healthy girls – 5lb 2oz Aurora Azalea and 5lb 11oz Ophelia Lili on 2 October 2021 at Liverpool Women’s Hospital.
When she gave birth to her daughter in 2010, she vowed to never to try again, to avoid further heartbreak – until she met her current husband, Joe White, 41, a jewellery importer, in 2019.
She said: ‘I had one child. I’m an only child myself. I thought that was it for me after Mollie Rose. After all the pain and the worry, I was content.
‘I met Joe and he told me straight away he wanted children. I told him no.
‘But then about two weeks later I was so happy, in love and comfortable that all I could think was give me babies!’
Emma then fell pregnant twice and suffered two m.iscarriages. The couple tried one last time and fell pregnant again in late 2020.
At an early scan they discovered they were having twins but this pregnancy too ended in a m.iscarriage at six weeks – something Emma discovered on her birthday.
Spending the early days of this pregnancy terrified, she said she would check the toilet every time she went, and was scared to ‘cough’, ‘scared of any ache or pain’. At six weeks, she began bleeding and shaking uncontrollably.
At Liverpool Women’s Hospital hospital she was given a b.lood test and told to return in two days for a scan. She said: ‘I got in there, lay down and the sonographer didn’t turn the screen around. I’d been in so many times before and I knew it meant more bad news.’
Picking up the phone, the sonographer called for support and the room filled with medics, as Emma was prepared for emergency surgery. ‘One person was trying to put socks on me, another was reading warnings about surgery off a piece of paper,’ she said.
‘Finally, someone told me it was a confirmed ectopic pregnancy – when an unviable fertilised e.gg implants itself outside the womb, usually in one of the fallopian tubes. ‘I was told I’d have to have one of my fallopian t.ubes r.emoved.’
Within six minutes of the sonographer making the emergency call, Emma was in theatre being sedated. When she woke, she imagined any last hope she had of ever having another baby herself had gone – but then overhead a doctor talking to a colleague that night and mentioning that she was pregnant. A b.lockage had been found in one of her fallopian tubes during surgery, which was cleared, so her pregnancy was continuing.
And a scan a few days later, revealed not the one baby she longed for – but four.
Emma said: ‘I was stunned. I still couldn’t believe it as I was taken off to see a specialist in multiple pregnancies. ‘She walked in and said, “So, four babies.” She showed me another scan image and there they were – four tiny blobs.’
Both Joe and Emma were delighted at the unexpected news of their naturally conceived quads and a private scan confirmed their four babies were doing well a week on.
But at nine weeks, Emma began to bleed profusely and was taken to hospital by ambulance, but told her babies were healthy.
Two days later, she stood up and ‘felt something f.all out.’ Looking down, she found herself staring at what she describes as ‘clearly little babies.’
As she was still b.leeding, hospital staff were unable to perform an internal scan, but an external scan showed there were no signs of pregnancy. Emma said: ‘I was told it looked like I’d p.assed the pregnancy. ‘I knew they were right, as I’d seen the babies with my own eyes. I knew they’d gone.’
Knowing this was the last time she could ever put herself through this, Emma shared the tragedy on social media for support.
She said: ‘I put it all on Facebook and a woman came forward offering to be my surrogate. We were all lined up and ready to go.’
But Emma explained she later dreamed she was still pregnant, revealing: ‘I woke up with a start. My grandad died when I was four and I never have those kinds of dreams.
‘I grabbed a doppler I had on top of the cupboard, held it to my stomach and listened. Sure enough – there was a whooshing sound.’ Despite Joe’s confusion and scepticism, Emma headed to hospital and insisted on being scanned. She said: ‘They must have thought I was m.ad.
‘I’d been marked down as having lost the babies and there I was, hysterical and crying, saying, ‘I’ve had a dream. I’m still pregnant’.’
But, sure enough, a scan showed Emma was still pregnant with two babies.
