Give Jocelyn and Terry a Chance to Parent Again

Hello Everyone,

My name is Jocelyn Miles. My husband Terry and I would like to tell our story on how one of the best life-changing days also turned into the most life-altering and sad days we've ever experienced.

The Bottom Line Up Front:

My loving husband and I are prepared for the journey ahead. Unfortunately, our greatest obstacle is the extremely steep price of undergoing a uterus transplant. My husband and I are praying we will find a way to continue to grow our family. Whether we are able to grow our family via uterine transplant or via equally expensive surrogacy, we will not give up! We want to parent more beautiful children, and we are praying that we can be blessed with such an amazing gift.

We thank you all in advance for any and every donation. Your donation means the world to us and our family. Your donation is an actual gift of life. Not only will it be helping our family but also many other women around the world who cannot currently give birth due to Uterine Factor Infertility (UFI).

Our Story:

My husband and I have been together since 2012 and happily married since 2016. We envisioned growing a large family together similar to that of which we both grew up with. We ultimately decided that we wanted to have 6 children of our own.

In 2017, we found out we were expecting our first child. What we also found out was that I had a bicornuate uterus, which means it was more heart-shaped than round like normal, so our first pregnancy was already at higher risk. That was fine; we had our beautiful daughter in Nov. 2017. Shortly after delivery, I began to hemorrhage. The doctor was able to get it to stop, and after a few units of blood, we went on our happy way to recovery.

Fast forward to the end of 2018.

We found out we were expecting again. This time a little boy who was to be expected in Aug. 2019. Months flew by relatively smoothly until I went into actual labor a little after midnight on August 2nd, and we headed to the hospital. Once there, Terry, my mom through the phone, and a very kind nurse helped me get through my labor, and soon after, our handsome son entered the world naturally at 1:56 am. After he was delivered, my placenta didn't want to detach at first, so it took a while to get that out. Eventually, it finally came out, and my doctor left, and the nurse started my recovery process. Well, just like with our first, I started to hemorrhage once again. We were all prepared for the possibility of it happening, so the nurses and an on-call doctor started the process of stopping it. However, this time was different. This time the bleeding wouldn't stop no matter what they did. They started blood transfusions, but I was losing the blood just as fast as it was being put into me. I went through about 2-3 units in the labor room. They put a balloon device in me to help stop the blood and to help my uterus... that didn't work. I was given a shot to make the bleeding stop... it didn't. By this time, I had both of the doctors I had been seeing during my pregnancy in the room along with a whole bunch of nurses. They were doing everything they could to stop the bleeding, but it had gotten to the point where I only had two choices... life or death.

Life was to have an emergency hysterectomy, and death was, well, death. Realistically, it's not a hard decision. Keep in mind, though, I'm an otherwise healthy young woman who is being told I can never have children again. I was being told my dream of mothering 6 children was forcibly being taken away. So I needed a moment to process the fact that I couldn't have kids anymore, and I was dying slowly yet fast. Terry and I talked, and we cried. I called my mom back and told her what was going to happen, and signed the consent form to have my uterus removed. From there on, everything flew by. I was rolled into the operating room quickly and put under so the doctor could save my life. While there, I received about 5 or 6 units of blood and other lifesaving products. After the surgery was done, I was moved to ICU for 2 days, where I underwent multiple IV sites, 3 more units of blood, blood draws, lots and lots of fluids, lots of medicines, unbelievable soreness, and a whole lot of swelling to my entire body. While in the ICU, I couldn't see our son, who was up in the NICU being monitored for his breathing, but he had his papa, grandma, tia, and tios visiting him at every chance. It's very hard being separated from your children when you know you almost died because the only thing you want to do is hold them close.

I was unrecognizable due to all the swelling, covered in bruises, IV and monitor lines running across me, but through it all, Terry and my mom were beside me when they were not taking care of our daughter. Both of them are champs. My family (who already had plans of visiting) came in and helped out so much, from seeing our newborn son and me in the hospital to taking care of our daughter.

Eventually, I got to hold our son and bond with him. I got out of ICU, made my way to the couplet care with our son, I also got to see and spend time with our daughter, and was soon discharged with a healthy baby boy.

However, I also left with bruises, pain, and an incision site similar to a C-section, and no uterus.

My family is so very happy to have our son, and he had nothing to do with what happened to me, so his birth is still one of the greatest days of our lives. My incompetent uterus tried to smear his beautiful day of birth, but we won't let it. Until now, our dreams of having more children of our own seemed impossible. However, with the advancement of modern medicine, it is now possible for women like me, women who have had no uterus, or women who have had to have theirs removed during emergency medical care, to now have the opportunity to mother children again.

Again, my loving husband and I are prepared for this fight. Unfortunately, our greatest obstacle is the extremely steep price of undergoing a uterus transplant. My husband and I are praying we will find a way to continue to grow our family. Whether we are able to grow our family via transplant or via equally expensive surrogacy, we will not give up! We are called to parent more beautiful children, and we are praying that we can be blessed with such an amazing gift.

We thank you all in advance for any and every donation. Your donation means the world to us and our family. Your donation is an actual gift of life. Not only will it be helping our family but also many other women around the world who cannot currently give birth due to Uterine Factor Infertility (UFI) by raising awareness of the issue and shedding light on the latest innovations in medicine.

We know that donating can be stressful so we want you to know that your donation will be used to cover the cost of IVF ($15,000), complete Uterine Transplant & 1st childndelivery ($275,000), 2nd child Delivery ($90,000) and preceding medical evaluations ($20,000) and any remaining funds will be used for follow-up medical care and travel related costs. In the event that we are unable to complete a uterine transplant, We plan to utilize surrogacy. The costs vary between state to state but range from ($100,000 - $200,000) per child.