A mum has told of her joy after she discovered she was pregnant – while having an operation to discover why she was ‘infertile’.
Tia Reed, 19, suffers with painful womb condition endometriosis and feared she was infertile after failing to conceive despite “having sex at least once a day”.
She was on the operating table and under anesthetic for a laparoscopy to check if she would ever be able to have a child, when a medic ran in to halt the op.
A pre-op urine test revealed she was five weeks pregnant with partner Liam Twining, 22, and baby Ronnie James Twinning has now been born via c-section.
First-time mum Tia, from Birmingham, said: “The anticipation of any operation is horrible but the thought of waking up and being told I was never going to be a mum was already devastating.
“I was preparing for the worst.
“I woke up completely delusional after what felt like seconds.
“I remember asking the anaesthetist if it was all done and he replied ‘we will explain later’.
“I dozed off for a few more hours and was surprised to wake up not feeling uncomfortable.
“I touched my stomach and there were no bandages.
“At this point I started to freak out and thought ‘how the hell have they gone in to perform it?!’
“When the anaesthetist came in he said ‘We have good news and bad news. The bad news is we haven’t been able to complete the surgery’.
“I started to panic. I just thought the worst and thought they had come across something.
“Then he said ‘The good news is you’re pregnant’.
“The only thing that came out of my mouth was ‘Are you f***ing joking?’ which isn’t exactly polite but I was just in shock!”
Tia has suffered with painful periods all her life, and was eventually diagnosed with endometriosis – an excruciating condition where the uterus lining grows elsewhere – in August 2017.
She worried it had left her infertile after struggling to get pregnant.
“Liam and I were very sexually active. We weren’t exactly trying for a baby but rather took the view ‘if it happens, it happens’” she said.
“We were having sex at least once a day. To be that sexually active and not fall pregnant, I was starting to get worried.”
Doctors booked Tia in for laparoscopy in November 2017 to check the severity of the endometriosis and whether it had affected her fertility forever.
After being given her gown, stockings and medical debrief, Tia was sent down to theatre for the operation and put under general anaesthetic.
She came round to be told she was pregnant and phoned sister Sinead, 28, mum Viv, 57, and partner Liam, 22, from her hospital bed to tell them her good news.
“I phoned my sister first as I just didn’t know how to go about breaking it to the others. She was as shocked as I was,” said Tia.
“Even though my mum already has 12 grandchildren and had seen and heard this all before, she was over the moon.
“Then I phoned Liam when he was at work.
“I just told him: ‘I’m pregnant’ and he just thought I was winding him up.
“When he realised I wasn’t playing a prank he just broke down in tears.”
The next day Tia and Liam visited their local pregnancy clinic for a scan but sonographers couldn’t find a heartbeat.
“We were told to come back in two weeks. Both our hearts sank and I started crying. It thought this miracle had been snatched away from me.
“When we returned to the clinic my heart was racing. But as soon as the sonographer put the camera against my stomach you could hear his tiny heartbeat.
“I can’t put it into words we were just so excited.”
Ronnie was born via c-section weighing 8lb 8oz on May 23, after a tough four-day labour.
“Despite the difficult birth and previously going under the general anaesthetic when I was five weeks gone my miracle baby made it,” she said.
Tia fears the return of her endometriosis – a condition which affects one in ten women in the UK, causing severe pelvic pain, pain during sex and nausea.
“Life was very miserable.
“Both Liam and I have a high sex drive but our daily romps dropped to just two or three a week.
“Then there would be in excruciating pain after sex so I was always very nervous to have sex because I was scared of the after pain.
“I would constantly have to take paracetamol every four hours. Doctors tried to give me zapain, a mix of paracetamol and codeine, but nothing worked.
“I would take one or two weeks off a month from college.
“When I started out as a dental assistant there would be days I just couldn’t physically go in. The same went for my social life.
“Since I’ve had Ronnie I am very worried about the endometriosis making a return, I get anxiety when I think about the pain I could soon be in.
“I’ve even jokingly said to Liam I’m keen to get pregnant again just so I don’t go through the terrible pain again.”
