After 4 heartbreaking miscarriages in 2019 and 2020, one of which required surgery, a friend recommended we visit Mr Shehata as he had helped them have a baby after a similar journey of heartache and loss.

Mr Shehata did a thorough assessment of our medical history and fertility journey so far. He seemed confident he could help us and sent us both for various tests. He has an impressive track record and success rate therefore we felt that if anyone could help us he could.

The tests revealed that I had a high level of natural killer cells which were very active. This explained why I had lost previous pregnancies as my immune system was fighting them off. It felt good to finally get answers and to be told it would be possible to have a baby. Part of the testing assessed what levels of drugs I would require to help maintain a pregnancy so the treatment plan was tailored specifically to me.

I started a treatment plan of prednisolone and intralipids, along with aspirin, omeprazole and progesterone. It felt good to be taking the medication as it felt like a proactive step forward. Mr Shehata was confident and that gave us hope.

Unfortunately we had another miscarriage at the beginning of 2021 which the CRP were not expecting and booked me in for an Manual Vacuum Aspiration (MVA) procedure. Following this I also had a hysteroscopy due to weeks of unexplained bleeding. Mr Jan completed the procedure and identified that I had Ashermans syndrome, likely from the D&C I had after my first pregnancy. Mr Jan was a huge support during this process and I felt very safe under his care. Again it was good to get answers as to why I had miscarried and know that the scar tissue had been removed so we could try again.

It felt like the CRP team were as determined as us to help bring us our baby.

Having cleared the scar tissue we were ready to try again and this time Mr Shehata added in an additional drug to the plan – Hydroxychloroquine.

In September 2021, we fell pregnant again. We were petrified at the first scan but Mr Shehata didn’t delay and started the scan immediately. He quickly told us there was a heartbeat and everything looked good. He is such an expert in his field that we hung on his every word and felt instant relief. The care we received over the following weeks was excellent and the midwives were so empathetic and supportive.

We had wondered whether it would ever be ‘our turn’ to have a baby and so we were still in shock when we made it to 16 weeks and I had weaned off the medications.

On the 7th June our healthy happy baby girl was born weighing 7lb 4oz. She is our miracle baby and has bought us immeasurable joy! Our hearts are full and we feel incredibly lucky that we found Mr Shehata and team who helped us have the baby we began to think would never be part of our future.

We will be forever grateful to Mr Shehata, Mr Jan, Ms Viswanatha, Geraldine, Laura and Nicola! We hope that others who have had similar journeys find their way to the clinic and get the support and treatment we were so lucky to receive.

 

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