Help Emily and Ben Welcome their Rainbow Baby

We are currently 30 weeks pregnant and incredibly excited to welcome a new baby into our family!

As happy as we currently are, it’s been a long road including multiple losses. After almost 3 years of persistent miscarriages, one unviable pregnancy (ending in abortion), and a few chemical pregnancies we realized that we would likely need medical help to have a successful pregnancy.

In the fall of 2023 we started the IVF process. After a lot of oral medication and many and many shots we got the news that they were able to create several embryos. We made the decision to pay out of pocket in order to get them genetically tested, and luckily ended up with two strong embryos, from which we hoped to lead to one healthy child.

In early January one of the healthiest embryos was implanted. Soon after, my HCG levels looked positive that I was pregnant.

At about 12 weeks, when many people start to feel secure that the largest chance of miscarriage is over, we had our first significant scare. I experienced heavy bleeding and passed a large clot. Ben met me and a good friend at the emergency room where we spent the next few hours worrying that we lost the pregnancy. Luckily, later in the day they determined that the embryo was still healthy, but that there there was a large subchorionic hematoma around my uterus and although uncommon in most pregnancy, is much more common with IVF. I was instructed to be on pelvic rest and alerted that this increased my chances of miscarriage or stillbirth. As this condition was monitored over the next few weeks, we were alerted that the fetus kept growing but the uterus wasn’t keeping up it’s pace of growth. The Doctors said that there was nothing that we could do but wait, but there was a potential for other complications due to this including loss. I continued on pelvic rest, which was especially hard for our snuggle-hungry 6.5 year old.

Due to pelvic rest I had to forgo a lot of the self care I planned for my mental and physical health, including prenatal yoga. Instead, I began investing in acupuncture and reiki treatments in the hopes that although traditional medicine had no answers for healing my body to have a healthy pregnancy, alternative treatment might offer some support.

At my long-awaited 20 week ultrasound the subchorionic had completely healed but they now detected “Vasa Previa”. This roughly translates to “vessels in the way, before the baby”, in particular, the placement of the umbilical cord. In the days before ultrasounds and c-sections, this was a condition that typically killed both the baby and mother. Thankfully with early detection, most women are able to be monitored with after hospitalization at 32 weeks, and birth via planned c-section between 34-36 weeks. We began to plan what these unique challenges would look like for our family, but ultimately I was just relieved that there would likely be a healthy baby born regardless of how and when.

Miraculously we found out a few weeks later that the umbilical cord shifted, and there there was no more vasa previa diagnosis! At 24 weeks I was finally off pelvic rest, carrying a viable fetus, and could begin to be excited about the pregnancy.

Now at 29 weeks with only 11 weeks go we are planning for Baby's arrival without much concern about her physical health or mine!

I want to recognize all of the families that struggle with fertility issues and honor the strength is takes to find your own way through these challenges to build a family in whatever way you can. This includes, IVF, adoption, surrogacy, and the decision that it's just not the road for you at all! The more we tell our stories the more we can break down the stigmas and support everyones unique Journeys. #abortionishealthcare.

As we enter this phase, and I reflect on what it will bring, I have determined that the most important gift I could possibly receive to help with the babies first few months, is the care of postpartum doulas. This is the only gift we are asking and are grateful for any amount of funds we can gather.

This is not a small gift financially or in terms of impact. When we had Shira 6.5 years ago I experienced postpartum anxiety and depression. Although it was not insurmountable, I struggled through her first few months of her life rather than enjoying them as I saw many other mothers do.

My plan is to have the care of a daytime doula 3x a week for 8x and an overnight doula 1x per week for 8 weeks. After calculating the cost I reduced the plan to 2 daytime visits so that the fee seems more achievable with the help of gifts. If we can reach this funds goal then I can add back the additional day.

I secured a contract with the Boston Area Doulas (https://bostonareadoulas.com/) where I interviewed and confirmed two incredibly compassionate and experienced providers. I am happy provide more information about how doulas support new mothers at anyones request.

Thank you for helping us with this support and relief as we finally see our dream of adding another child to our home come true!