Rebecca and her husband are newly married as of July 2022 and didn’t plan to have children right away due to being in grad school. Her mind changed suddenly and they started trying to conceive.

In December 2022 she learned that she was pregnant with her daughter, Hadley. Throughout the first trimester, every ultrasound and appointment went well. Rebecca also had NIPT testing and everything came back normal without any concerns.

During the a diagnostic ultrasound, Rebecca saw that her daughter looked great and was moving around on the screen. When she sat down with the doctor, she immediately knew that something wasn’t right. The doctor sat down and started talking about what they were looking at on the ultrasound and pointed out that there was increased fluid behind Hadley’s neck which was a big concern.

Following that ultrasound, she was given a few options which were to do nothing or to do the CVS procedure. Rebecca and her husband did the CVS procedure and found it to be a difficult procedure due to a tilted uterus which resulted in a smaller sample and a longer wait time for results. In the meantime, they saw an MFM doctor where they learned about other concerns.

A month after having the CVS procedure, she finally heard the results an dit was confirmed that Hadley was missing a 13th chromosome.

Learning about her daughters quality of life was difficult and led her to make the difficult decision to go through with a termination of pregnancy.

At 18 weeks, Rebecca had a D&E procedure. She was given a copy of Hadley’s footprints and had her cremated.

A month following her D&E, Rebecca learned that she was pregnant for the second time which was a surprise. She is currently 18 weeks pregnant and did have a lot of testing and procedures to make sure that her second child was healthy.

The Miscarriage Doula is an online service and resource for those walking through pregnancy loss and life after. Check out our website for 1:1 support and support groups (GROUPS STARTING IN AUGUST 2023) ---- THEMISCARRIAGEDOULA.CO