There are no words to describe this journey of 14 consecutive losses– with Samantha (stillbirth, second trimester loss, recurrent miscarriage, IVF, donor eggs, surrogacy)

In this episode I chat with Samantha – she is the epitome of the quote “You were given this life because you are strong enough to live it”. Samantha’s first pregnancy ended in a tragic second trimester loss at 22 weeks due to placental abruption and due to retained products, she contracted a severe infection that left her in ICU. Samantha’s coping mechanism was to create a plan and start taking action on how to move forward. Unfortunately, her second pregnancy ended at 20 weeks due to premature rupture of waters and it was found that her infection had returned. Her third pregnancy miraculously turned out to be twins…after her first scan only showed 1 baby and heartbeat. Her second scan though showed that there were actually 2 babies in there and as her luck would have it, they were the most high-risk twins below conjoined twins and they had a 75% mortality rate. Samantha and her partner were advised to terminate due to the high risk and her history, but they decided to ride it out and see how it went. The twins passed at 15 weeks due to cord entanglement. After the birth of the twins, Samantha spent 3 years trying with no success. She then fell pregnant a fourth time with her son Noah and devastatingly went into active labour at 22 weeks. Despite all the tragic loss that she has endured, Samantha was still determined to have a living child. As they had spent so long without any luck, it was decided they would try donor eggs, which they got from the Ukraine. This was her first experience with IVF. They implanted 2 embryos and did fall pregnant, but then miscarried 7 days later. By now, we are into COVID days and it was difficult to make the trip to Canberra from Melbourne, where she was getting the IVF treatment and made the decision to look into surrogacy. Shortly after, her and her partner separated and this left Samantha in a really dark hole and she described this loss as being harder than losing the babies – because now in her 40’s, she felt as though all hope of her dreams of having a living child left when he did. She did end up transferring the last embryo they had and when it didn’t take, she decided that IVF wasn’t for her and it was time to seriously explore her surrogacy options. Australia was out of the question, simply as it was going to take too much time – so it was off to Greece! She used an organisation that only take on people that have tried all other avenues and have been unsuccessful in birthing a live child. At the time of recording in February 2023, her surrogate was pregnant – with twins!! Unfortunately, twin A – Baby Grace, passed due to a heart condition and there was a real chance she could lose both babies if the surrogates body recognised that one of the twins had died. Some good news though! Twin B, who is a baby boy is thriving and at the time of release, Samantha is on her way to Greece for the birth of her baby boy. This is an incredibly devastating and heart-wrenching journey that spanned 10 years and I’m so overjoyed to follow Samantha’s journey and watch her bring her baby home.If you want to follow Samantha, she has a page on Facebook – Memories of an Angel – https://www.facebook.com/MemoriesofanAngelMake sure you follow the Messy in the Middle Instagram page: https://instagram.com/_messyinthemiddle_?igshid=NTdlMDg3MTY=And if you want to share your story, please get in contact with me either through the Instagram page or email me at [e-mail]