"Miracle Mom," Gina Walker on Today Show

Gina Walker - CEO & Founder of the Hope for Accreta Foundation

Jennifer's Story of surviving Accreta twice.

My only desire in life was always to be a mother; since I was young it was all I could imagine. Everything began to fall into place after marrying Jason, the man of my dreams in 2004. I knew my dream of becoming a mother was now within reach. After Jason and I settled into our new roles as husband and wife we felt it was time to expand our family. It was a long eighteen months trying to conceive, always anxiously awaiting the day I could scream out “I’m Pregnant”! 

April 2007 I found out I was finally going to me a mom, I was ecstatic when those two pink lines appeared. That excitement quickly turned to worry when I began bleeding, which continued for weeks. The fear that all the bleeding had placed made it very hard to enjoy the pregnancy. Near the end of the pregnancy at a routine exam the doctors became concerned when I began to lose weight. They performed another ultrasound and found that my unborn baby’s growth had stalled and they knew then that something was definitely wrong. 

My dream of a perfect pregnancy and birth were slowly crashing down. The admitted me immediately and induced the labor, which progressed rapidly after the epidural was placed. Everything afterwards became a blur, the babies heart beat was extremely rapid and she struggled to cry and grasp her first breathes. 

The appearance of the placenta was shocking it was like someone had used it as target practice with a shotgun, it was in what looked to be a thousand tiny pieces. I remember the feeling of becoming very cold and like my body was in a state of paralysis. 

Me with Jessica

The doctors took me into surgery to remove the tiny pieces of placenta they said “it was like picking out little jigsaw pieces “this took hours and also required me to receive multiple blood transfusions. Through surviving this undiagnosed Accreta my uterus also survived.

Jessica 

Jessica 

I later gave birth to a beautiful baby boy in 2010. I was never warned about the reoccurrence of Placenta Accreta however the doctors did take precaution and deliver him by Cesarean. The pregnancy and birth of my son went perfect. I now had a beautiful daughter and handsome son that I loved more than anything but still had the feeling that my family was not complete.

Baby Joshua 

I fell pregnant with my youngest daughter in 2012; this pregnancy carried all of the same pains and uncomfortableness as my first without the bleeding. I went into preterm labor at 28 weeks thanks to modern medicine they were able to stall the labor. 

The next nine weeks dragged on so slowly all I could do was pray that I made it to full term. I had a nagging feeling that something was wrong but tried not to overly concern myself. A cesarean was scheduled at 37 weeks, after doing different blood draws and screenings to prepare for the delivery they discovered the hospital could not find a cross match for my blood,  this was deeply concerning as I was told that I was unable to deliver until they found a cross- match. No match, no surgery, it took seven days, numerous blood drives that collected from over 2,000 different donors for them to finally find a match and one match only (I developed a rare blood antibody over time due to pregnancy hormones, transfusions, genetics etc.).

 September 14^th, 2012 was the big day my family was finally going to be complete. Isabelle was born and everything went great, I do remember my doctor telling me “we were very lucky that the placenta and uterus were quite sticky”. Isabelle and I were released and I realised how truly blessed I was to have had my dreams of motherhood fulfilled.

Me with Baby Isabelle

A few weeks after the delivery I began bleeding heavily, over a ten day period I found myself getting checked and scanned four different times, they had found multiple blood clots. I later began to hemorrhage and my doctor transferred my care to the main hospital. 

I spent the next 5 weeks in the hospital on heavy medication, being repeatedly that I wasn’t going to make it. The reason being is that I now have this extremely rare blood antibody which changed again after giving birth to Isabelle. 

My blood was sent to Holland where they identified the antibody and also that only 0.04% of the world’s population would be a match. During the identification process the hospital was able to keep me stable there was no blood in Malta that could replenish what I was losing. Finally a match was found in Bristol England which was flown to Malta for the only surgery they could perform. 

The surgeons had decided my fate and had told me if I did not have a hysterectomy I would most likely bleed to death, this was extremely hard to hear but I knew it was for the best for me and my family. The pain I felt afterwards during my recovery was horrific, and the loss I felt was unbearable but looking at my children I knew it was all worth it.

Scan of the stuff that was inside of me.

The pathology report afterwards confirmed yet another undiagnosed Placenta Accreta, this time it was actually classified as Increta. There was a hole going straight through to my uterus. I am a Survivor not once but twice! I feel like I have been blessed in so many ways and realize how lucky I am to still be here to live that dream I had always desired.

Isabelle in the NICU

Jessica

Me with Jessica.

My Two Accreta Girls.

I  feel that everything happens for a reason and through this I have met some wonderful people, and feel honoured to have met such strong women in the the support groups.  I am now working with the Hope for Accreta Foundation to give back, to help support women, create awareness, and increase blood donation, without which I would not be here today to enjoy my beautiful family.