Mum who suffered FOUR miscarriages finally has children…thanks to daily ASPIRIN tablets
The pills helped to stop blood clots... which may have contributed to the heartbreaking end of four previous pregnancies
A MUM who suffered four miscarriages in as many years has now welcomed a beautiful baby boy into the world – after turning to aspirin.
Lucy Howard was almost too scared to keep trying for kids, despite longing to have a little sibling for her three-year-old daughter Sophie.
Happily, Lucy gave birth to son Elliott with husband Oli, also 37, on July 10 – and they swear it’s all thanks to aspirin.
Lucy, who is from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, said: “Technically I have two children, but I’ll never forget the four I lost.
“I often wonder what they’d be like.”
The stay-at-home mum first got pregnant in April 2012 – but after experiencing excruciating abdominal pains she went to Medway Maritime Hospital, in Gillingham.
A test confirmed Lucy was pregnant and she had a scan – but the room suddenly went silent.
Lucy said: “I could tell straight away something was wrong.”
Lucy was told the heartbreaking news that she had suffered a missed miscarriage.
She had lost her baby at six weeks, but Lucy’s body continued to believe she was pregnant.
She was given the choice to wait for the baby to pass out naturally, have surgery, or take medication to bring on the miscarriage – and chose the latter.
Lucy said: “I didn’t feel like I’d miscarried.
“I needed to go through delivering my baby to deal with it.”
Two months later, Lucy fell pregnant again – but said she felt nervous with every twinge.
After passing the crucial 12-week stage, Lucy finally got excited – and Sophie was born, perfectly fit and healthy, in May 2013.
Lucy joked: “Apparently I gave an Oscar-worthy speech the first time I held her, but I don’t really remember.”
In February 2014, Lucy got pregnant again, but tragically lost this baby at six weeks – just three days after taking a pregnancy test.
Then in November that year, she suffered another missed miscarriage at around 11 weeks.
Lucy recalled: “I felt slightly more prepared this time, and it was good having Sophie there with me.
“I remember holding her and just crying.
“Oli was amazing.
“He had to be the strong one, but we both knew deep down there may be a point where he’d have to say ‘enough is enough’.
“I have long-term depression, so we were both concerned about how much more I could cope with.”
Lucy’s fourth miscarriage came in May 2015, at 10 weeks, and she said: “I felt like a failure as a woman, like my body wasn’t doing what it was meant to.
“I started questioning myself, wondering if this was my fault.”
From her own research, Lucy realised her recurrent miscarriages could be caused by Antiphospolpid Syndrome (APS), also known as Hughes Syndrome, a condition causing blood clots.
Her tests from a miscarriage clinic were inconclusive – but when Lucy fell pregnant in late 2015 doctors advised her to take soluble aspirin every day until the 28-week mark.
The drug is thought to help prevent blood clots, but Lucy started experiencing bleeding at just six weeks and rushed to hospital.
Is it safe for pregnant women to take aspirin?
Sun Doctor Carol Cooper says:
“As a rule, pregnant women should avoid aspirin as it increases the chances of bleeding and can harm their baby, or even bring on miscarriage.
Damage is more likely with regular adult doses of aspirin, and the same goes for other anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen.
But some women have pregnancy problems caused by small clots in the placenta.
For these mums-to-be, aspirin can be a life-saver. In some cases of antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), it’s prescribed along with heparin, an anticoagulant.
If your doctor prescribes aspirin for a complication of pregnancy, it’s more dangerous for you and your baby not to take it.”
She said: “Neither Oli nor I could see it ending happily.
“I was fully expecting to be told I’d had another miscarriage, but instead, the sonographer said, ‘Do you want to see your baby’s heartbeat?’
“It was amazing, but we’d had two babies that had still had heartbeats just before I miscarried, so I didn’t want to raise my hopes.”
Though her pregnancy continued to progress, Lucy still couldn’t relax – and she neither bought the baby anything nor kitted out his nursery, in case something went wrong.
Lucy said: “I kept having nightmares and felt guilty that I couldn’t get excited.”
Elliott was delivered by water bath on July 10, weighing just 7lb8oz.
Lucy said: “When I picked him up out of the water and cuddled him, all my anxiety completely lifted.
“Now he’s back home and doing brilliantly.
“We’re so delighted.”
Lucy is sharing her story as research from the IONA test – a non-invasive prenatal screening test – 1 in 5 pregnant women report experiencing ‘extreme worry’ every day for 84 days.