A mom who was told her baby would be stillborn – and even planned his funeral – has recalled the incredible joy of hearing her son cry at birth.
Tammy Smith, 26, and partner Adam Smith, 29, had been told there was no way their unborn son could survive after her waters broke at 20 weeks in February 2016.
Expecting that she would soon go into premature labor, Tammy was advised to plan a funeral.
The couple, from Worcester, UK, then picked a blue coffin, a horse and carriage and even decided on the music and flowers.
But Tammy managed to delay going into labor for almost 10 more weeks and – while Jesse was initially born unresponsive – doctors were stunned when he let out a tiny cry in the delivery room.
The tot was whisked off for emergency care and, against all odds, he made a full recovery.
His devoted parents have admitted they still can’t quite believe he’s really here.
Tammy said: “He is a miracle, there’s no doubt about it in my mind.
“To go into delivery being told to prepare for your baby being born asleep is horrendous.
“But to have left that hospital with a healthy boy is a dream come true.”
Tammy’s water broke 19 weeks early on February 17, 2016, and was sent home from hospital to begin planning his funeral.
Many hospitals operate a policy whereby doctors will not intervene and provide care to babies born before 24 weeks.
Tragically, the couple had already lost a baby and planned to bury their son in the same grave.
Tammy admitted: “Burying one child was horrific, and planning another funeral broke our hearts.
“It was devastating, but we wanted to give him a perfect send-off as we had with his brother, so we decided on a horse and carriage and a blue coffin.”
But Tammy didn’t go into premature labor that day or the next, as predicted.
Back at the hospital a scan revealed that, against all the odds, her baby’s heart was still beating.
Doctors warned Tammy that with no fluids surrounding him, her unborn son still had a less than one per cent chance of survival.
She explained: “I was desperate for hope, but they told me there was none and that our son couldn’t survive. They wanted me to terminate but I couldn’t.”
Having refused to end the pregnancy, she instead followed advice from a Facebook page, created for moms whose waters break early, to try to prevent labor.
The page is run by an advocacy group called Little Heartbeats, which aims to raise greater awareness of PPROM (premature rupture of membranes).
Tammy put herself on bed rest, drank liters of water every day and asked for steroids for her baby’s lungs at 24 weeks – all advice she’d gleaned from the page.
At 30 weeks, doctors insisted that the baby was delivered when it passed meconium – an infant’s first poo – in the womb.
Tammy said: “Even as I was being wheeled into theater they were telling me he would be stillborn and that I had to prepare myself for it.”
The brave mom-to-be did her best to prepare herself mentally for silence in the delivery room, and, as predicted, Jesse was not breathing when he was born on April 26, 2016.
Tammy recalled: “I was devastated. The thought of having to bury another child was physically painful.