More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
A young woman has finally become a mum after she discovered her body was poisoning her own unborn babies.
Callie Hayes, 22, from Sheerness, had suffered two miscarriages and undergone a failed round of IVF treatment before an internal ultrasound eventually revealed the truth.
Doctors found that Callie was suffering with hydrosalpinx - a rare medical condition where a fallopian tube is blocked with a watery fluid.
In Callie's case, the damaged tube was leaking fluid into her uterus, preventing any embryos from implanting properly and ending the pregnancy.
Callie, a care assistant, decided to have the damaged tube removed in the hope of improving her fertility, and just two weeks later she fell pregnant.
Now after giving birth to her son Teddy, Callie is speaking out to raise awareness of the condition.
She said: "Hearing that I had hydrosalpinx was absolutely terrifying. I'd never heard of it before.
"Although after two miscarriages and a failed round of IVF, it was also a bit of a relief to finally have an answer for why I'd been struggling to fall pregnant for three years.
"Doctors described it to me as if the liquid had been giving my uterus an acid bath every month, so I'd been essentially poisoning my unborn babies by accident.
"I was heartbroken, and although there was no guarantee I'd be able to fall pregnant after the tube was removed, I had to give anything possible a try."
She said: "I had the surgery, and within just two weeks, I was pregnant, and now I'm finally a mum to a gorgeous and healthy little boy."
Callie first started trying for a baby back in February 2015 after falling in love with her partner Ben Hayes, 28, when they met at a nightclub.
Within three months of meeting, the young couple were engaged.
In June 2017, Callie discovered she was pregnant, but their joy was short-lived when she miscarried five weeks later.
She fell pregnant again in August 2017 but suffered a second miscarriage at five weeks, just six weeks before her wedding day.
She said: "I always wanted to become a mum, and when I met Ben, we both decided to start trying straight away.
"To go through two miscarriages in three months was absolutely devastating, and especially just before our wedding.
"It was so hard to prepare everything that needed to be done when all I wanted to do was lay in bed and not face anyone or anything.
"I thought about my second miscarriage constantly on my wedding day as we had actually planned to announce the pregnancy at our wedding.
"It was so difficult to make it through the day without getting upset, and without constantly thinking about how I should be pregnant."
After three years of struggle, Callie and husband Ben decided to try IVF in August 2018 but the treatment was unsuccessful.
Most sufferers of hydrosalpinx have no symptoms and only discover they have the condition after several unsuccessful pregnancies.
With Callie still hoping to fall pregnant, she was offered two treatment options - clipping the damaged tube, or having it removed altogether.
She said: "The only way to stop the liquid completely was to remove the damaged tube altogether, which would obviously reduce my chances of falling pregnant.
"I was terrified I might never get my dream baby, but there was a glimmer of hope and I just had to grab it and pray."
When surgeons removed the damaged tube in August 2018, they found it had swollen to almost 10 times the normal size.
The hopeful couple wasted no time in trying for a baby again, and within two weeks, Callie was pregnant.
Terrified of another miscarriage, Callie had extra scans throughout her pregnancy but slowly the nine months passed by and she eventually gave birth to a healthy baby boy on May 27 this year.
She said: "Teddy is our miracle baby, and he's just the most wonderful little man, and always making us laugh with his cheeky smile.
"Ben was my rock throughout it all, and I'm just so happy that we finally have our little family that we've been fighting for for so long."
For support, advice, events and all things to do with parenting in Kent, visit My Kent Family here.
