After fifteen years and five miscarriages, a delighted couple has finally brought “rainbow twins” into the world. Jennie Hill, 45, and her husband, John, 44, who started trying for a baby in 2003, said the wait was “worth every second”. After going through five heartbreaking miscarriages, the couple decided to turn to IVF – in vitro fertilization – to help them procreate.
They started their long journey toward pregnancy with three egg retrievals in 2015. During the procedure, an egg is removed from the woman’s ovaries and fertilized with sperm in a laboratory. The fertilized egg is then placed in the woman’s womb to grow and develop.
In Jennie and John’s case, only two eggs, known as embryos, made it. They were thrilled when one embryo stuck, paving the way for Jennie’s pregnancy. Jennie, who was diagnosed with balanced translocation in 2014 following a blood test, said she couldn’t go through a normal pregnancy again and gave the IVF treatment a chance.
“I got to see the moment they put the embryo in. I saw that as my silver lining.”
However, complications could still come up during the first months of pregnancy, including miscarriage, premature delivery and low birth weight, birth defects and malformation as well as multiple births.
But Jennie managed to carry baby Harper to full term. Nine months after finding out she was pregnant, the 39-year-old mum delivered Harper through emergency c-section due to pre-eclampsia in January 2017 at Northeast Georgia Medical Center, Braselton, Georgia, US.
The delighted couple underwent the same birth treatment two years later with their remaining embryo in January 2019.
To the new parents’ glee, Jennie fell pregnant with a baby boy, Liam, now three.
However, this time around, the pregnancy came with difficulties. Jennie developed gestational diabetes and had to give birth at 37 weeks in September 2019, with Liam weighing 5lbs 14oz. The average birth weight of a full-term male baby is between 7lbs 6oz, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
As a result, baby Liam spent six days in the neonatal unit before he was able to come home and join his big sister.
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