In 2016 my husband and I had the heart-breaking experience of losing our daughter Freya whilst I was 26 weeks pregnant. After going through the trauma of stillbirth we wanted to know why this had happened before we tried for another baby. The NHS ran tests but the conclusion was that our daughter’s death was ‘unexplained’.

I started investigating other reasons for our loss and read the late Alan Beer’s book ‘Is Your Body Baby Friendly’ and it rang a lot of alarms; I have thyroid issues with Graves Disease prevalent in my family; if my body could attack my own thyroid it could attack the placenta for a baby growing in my womb. Alan Beer mentioned Mr Shehata in his book and that set me on a path to exploring possible immunes testing and treatment.

After testing Mr Shehata discovered that I had high levels of anti-nuclear antibodies which tied in with a positive lupus test result on the NHS. These results are both linked to high incidences of stillbirth. Mr Shehata treated me with a drug used to treat malaria but my obstetrician and GP deffered to Mr Shehata’s knowledge as reproductive immunology is a relatively unexplored area for the NHS testing for pregnancy loss.

Between the excellent treatment we received from the NHS with the support of Mr Shehata’s expertise we were over the moon to have successful IVF treatment resulting in boy girl twins who arrived this year.

It’s been a long journey but so worth it.

Louise Cooke

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