Miracles Can Happen

By Christina

My story begins when I was 16 years old. My boyfriend and I (who are still together) found out I was pregnant. We were both scared and excited to be bringing a life into the world.

Everything was going great. At 18 weeks we went in for an ultrasound, everything looked great (so we thought). That night I started having excruciating pain in my stomach and back. I called the doctor who said "Just keep your feet up and come see me in the morning". Not even an hour later I started bleeding really bad and my water had broken. My mom rushed me to the hospital. It was too late I was dilated to far for the doctors to do anything. They gave me a shot of demoral and told me to start pushing. I knew I was going to lose my baby. Jemale DeWayne Gaston Jr. was born on December 21, 1995 at 12:23 AM. He died shortly after at 12:28 AM. No recesitation or procedures were tried to save him, for he was to tiny and my hospital was not equipped for such procedures. After a lot of time and tears my loss was still so fresh in my memories. I was so young and so upset at losing my precious little angel.

When I turned 17 I found out we were going to have another baby. I was so scared at losing this precious angel. At 15 weeks, (my doctor had been monitoring me closely) I went in for a routine checkup and the nurse was unable to find a heartbeat. I was rushed in for an emergency Ultrasound which proved my baby had passed away. A D&C was performed.

You can believe my feelings when I found out I was pregnant again at 19. I was horrified at the thought of losing yet again another baby. This time my doctor was prepared. He said he believed I had an Incompetent cervix, and wanted to do a cerclage. A MacDonald cerclage was placed at 14 weeks of pregnancy. After the procedure the doctor told me that my cervix was already thinning and starting to dialate. I was on complete bedrest from that point on. I was on terbutaline and getting steroid shots to promote my daughters lung development every week. At 32 weeks my contractions began and after several hours Sateva Marie Gaston was born on January 23,1998 perfectly healthy and normal.

You can email me at chrisdelrosario@apexmail.com

I would love sharing my story with other people. It might give somebody hope to try again.

Christina