11-weeks pregnant with her third child, Jessica Reger expected this pregnancy to go as smoothly as the others, with the exception of a complicated delivery with her second baby that required an emergency surgery and blood transfusions. But a routine ob/gyn visit revealed an abnormal blood screen – her blood was alloimmunized.
The whole morning turned into changing and canceling appointments, meeting new doctors, and understanding a real new world of twins. My doctor explained so many things about my pregnancy, including how it had become high risk, and that we needed screening every two weeks for things like TTTS.
Giving birth to a baby with an unusual prenatal diagnosis at 27 weeks in the midst of a global pandemic comes with its own unique challenges. That was one family’s reality earlier this year. But the care team at the Colorado Fetal Care Center — the only team in the region able to perform the procedure their baby needed to survive — was there to help them through it.
The first time I felt the pain that I described to the doctors as Braxton-Hicks contractions, I didn’t know it was a placental abruption. Read more about Lailani and her story.
“In severe cases of CDH, the survival rate is ranging from less than 20% to 50%, but with FETO, we’re seeing a huge improvement in odds of survival,” said Dr. Lim. “Right now, it looks like survival rates as high as 80-90% are possible, but we’re still learning.”
Babies born with Maverick’s heart condition and a restrictive or absent communication between the top two chambers of the heart, are born with abnormal lungs, in addition to the heart defect. In fact, most of these babies do not survive after birth. Maverick underwent creation of an opening in the top two chambers of the heart in fetal life with a stent, to allow him to be stable after birth..