After 18 Miscarriages, Brit Now Proud Mother of a "Miracle Baby Girl"

A British woman is said to have been elated when she delivered a healthy baby girl after suffering 18 miscarriages.

Angie Baker, 33, had been trying for a child for 13 years before her "little miracle", named Raiya, was conceived.

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"I can't explain how I feel," Sky News quoted her as saying.

"I'm overwhelmed. It seems like a dream and I still have to pinch myself. She's perfect in every way," she said of Raiya, who was born on December 9 last year and is now a healthy 10-week-old girl.

Baker, from Peacehaven near Brighton, said she never gave up hope of having a baby despite her 18 miscarriages, but she had discussed the possibility of adoption with her partner Lee Gibson.

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Then a friend spotted a newspaper article about a pioneering treatment offered by Dr Hassan Shehata at the Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Dr Shehata is a specialist in recurrent miscarriages but said Baker's case was one of the most unusual he had come across.

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"You're more likely to win the lottery than have 18 miscarriages," he said.

"Therefore there must be an underlying cause," he reasoned.

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A specialist test, offered only in Epsom, Liverpool and Chicago, showed Baker had high levels of a subtype of white blood cell, known as Natural Killer (NK) cells.

The cells would normally protect the body against foreign viruses, but in Baker's case they mistook the foetus for a foreign body and attacked it.

Dr Shehata's treatment is pioneering because it starts before conception and uses higher than normal doses of steroids.

Baker said she is loving every moment of being a mother so far.

"It's so precious. I can't believe she's here and she's mine," she added.

Dr Shehata said he had only read about one other case where a woman who had had 18 miscarriages had had a successful birth.

He is hoping that the treatment will become more widely available, although the equipment required to test for the condition costs between 150,000 pounds and 200,000 pounds.

Source-ANI
TAN