Over the course of 18 years, Georgina endured the devastating agony of 23 miscarriages – then she fell pregnant again
AS Georgina O’Shea cuddles her miracle daughter Rylee, she knows she is nothing short of a miracle.
After losing a heartbreaking 23 babies, she thought she would never be a mum.
But after having the Covid jab, she fell pregnant again and this time she finally became a miracle mum.
Georgina, 36, from Cork, Ireland, says: “Whether the Covid jab helped it or not, I don’t know.
“But it certainly was a miracle that I lost 23 babies and then had my beautiful daughter against all the odds.”
When she first met her husband Ken in 2004, they never imagined that having a family together would be so hard.
“We met at a New Year’s Eve party, and as we started chatting, then saw the New Year in, I felt a spark of something between us,” recalls Georgina.
“From then on we became a couple. And later that year I gave birth to our son Leon.
“We were only so young, but from the moment he was born, both Ken and I were besotted by him.
“I hadn’t had any problems falling pregnant with Leon and two years later, we decided that we wanted to try for a sibling for him.
“It would have been our dream to have had two children a couple of years apart.”
Georgina fell pregnant a few months later, and they were thrilled.
She thought the pregnancy would be as easy as her first, so when she started bleeding a few weeks later, she was shocked.
“I’d never expected this,” she said. “I was panicking so Ken took me to the hospital and they confirmed that I’d lost our baby.
“It was heartbreaking. It was difficult to come to terms with afterwards, but we were determined to carry on trying.
“And again a few months later, I fell pregnant again. This was going to be our rainbow baby, and we couldn’t wait.”
But Georgina started bleeding again a few weeks into the pregnancy, and she was told she had lost that baby too.
“I couldn’t understand what was happening,” she said.
“I’d given birth to Leo so easily, but now I’d lost two babies one after the other.”
Then year after year, she suffered the same heartbreak again and again.
Two miscarriages turned into three…then seven…then twelve….and it carried on and on.
There was the most wonderful sound, a tiny whoosh whoosh, and I burst into floods of tears
Georgina O'Shea
“It was difficult carrying on, but we wanted to be parents again so much that we forced ourselves to keep going and trying to get pregnant,” said Georgina.
“But each time each loss was as painful as the last.
“Doctors tried me on various drugs and I even went to see a specialist in the USA after I’d lost seven babies.
“We flew out there and really hoped that this was it, that it would put an end to the misery of all our losses.
“They suggested that either a scratch procedure to the womb lining may help the embryo stick, or that my immune system may be attacking each pregnancy, so I was given steroid treatment too.
“But nothing worked. I was still losing each baby as soon as I fell pregnant.
“And each time I fell pregnant, all I would feel was sadness, as I wondered which day it would be that I lost this baby too.
“I tried to build a barrier around myself, to protect me emotionally.
“I tried to distance myself every time I fell pregnant, and not think about it. But it was so hard.”
What is miscarriage and why do pregnancies fail?
MISCARRIAGE is generally the death of an unborn baby in the first 24 weeks – approximately six months – of pregnancy.
Miscarriages may not be spoken about a lot but they are very common. Baby loss charity Tommy’s estimates there are at least 250,000 per year in the UK and that one in every five pregnancies ends in miscarriage.
It may not be clear why a miscarriage happens but they are rarely caused by anything done by the mother or father. Usually the embryo has a random genetic defect that means it cannot develop properly.
Most women can go on to successfully have healthy babies in the future.
The NHS says most miscarriages cannot be prevented but avoiding smoking, alcohol and drugs while pregnant can reduce the risk.
Some of the other most common reasons for a pregnancy to fail in the first 24 weeks are ectopic pregnancy and molar pregnancy.
Ectopic pregnancy is where a fertilised egg implants somewhere outside of the womb, usually in a fallopian tube. It cannot survive and grow there so either dies naturally or must be terminated.
Molar pregnancy is rarer but happens when a fertilised egg and/or placenta does not develop properly at the start of a pregnancy. There is no single reason why it happens and cannot be prevented, though it may be more common in very young or old mothers.
A baby who dies after 24 weeks is considered a stillbirth.
Source: NHS
In 2020, she fell pregnant, and this time it was an ectopic pregnancy, which is where the embryo was developing in her fallopian tube rather than her womb.
“The surgeons had to rush me to surgery where they removed the tube, and the other one was left scarred, so it reduced my chances of even getting pregnant, let alone having a baby,” she said.
“Afterwards the doctors told me the chance of me getting pregnant now was very unlikely.
“Ken and I just held each other tightly to try and comfort each other through it.
“A few months later, I had my Covid jab, which was fine.
“I didn’t want to get ill, so I was glad I’d had the jab.”
Georgina added: “Then in September last year, I found myself staring at a positive pregnancy test stick again – for the 24th time.
“Well the doctors had been wrong on this one – despite only having one scarred tube, a little egg had managed to fight its way through and into the womb.
“It was a pity that it wasn’t going to make it, when it had already had such a difficult start to life.
“I waited and waited each day for the bleeding to start, to show me I was losing this baby too. But each day came and went, it was so strange.”
‘This time was different’
A previous scan determined it was too early to detect a heartbeat, but a later one brought them more joy than they could ever have imagined.
there was the most wonderful sound…a tiny whoosh whoosh on the scan. It was a heartbeat,” Georgina said.
“I hadn’t heard one of those for years and years. It was incredible. I burst into floods of tears.
“This baby was different, she was hanging on.”
She added: “The weeks went by, and I still couldn’t believe it was actually happening.
“When I got to 23 weeks I allowed myself to have a tiny flicker of excitement, as this baby could now survive.
“Then at 30 weeks the fear began to creep in again. We were so close, I couldn’t bear to lose her now if anything went wrong.
“But it didn’t and our amazing daughter Rylee arrived into the world in May last year, weighing a healthy 7Ib 6oz.
“Ken and I couldn’t believe it as I cuddled her to us. Our little miracle was actually here.
“After losing 23 babies, I had the Covid jab and now I’m a mum again.”