A couple who had spent almost 20 years trying to have a baby finally welcomed their miracle child.
Jason Scollen, 49, and his wife Jo, 47, suffered 14 heartbreaking miscarriages since they started trying for a baby in 2000.
After two decades of hoping, they finally welcomed their healthy daughter named Jessica Rose into their family.
It was in 1998 when Jo and Jason met in a pub. Two years later, they started trying to have a baby.
“Neither of us had a typical lifestyle growing up and it was our common bond that we wanted to have a family- and lots of animals!” Jo shared.
In 2000, they were so excited when she became pregnant for the first time. But only seven weeks later, they suffered their first loss.
“That was horrendous – all our hopes for the future were there and then our world fell apart,” she said.
“I had to stay in hospital for a week after that. But it is in both of our natures to not give up easily, we are survivors in our makeup, so we just tried to dust ourselves off and try again.”
Jo had no trouble getting pregnant but she couldn’t get exact answers from doctors as to why she kept having miscarriages.
In 2009, the couple decided to sell everything and move to Spain.
“It wasn’t working over the years and it was getting harder to deal with in the midst of London. There was so much around that we couldn’t get our heads together. We came here to reduce stress and simplify our life, thinking maybe that would help.”
Doctors in Spain discovered that Jo had three types of blood clotting disorders and other immune factors like chronic fatigue syndrome that could be hampering her pregnancies.
After suffering 12 miscarriages, she went for a round of IVF. “We decided it was something that we hadn’t tried before and we should give it a go,” Jo expressed.
But even though she fell pregnant, she had another miscarriage that same year.
“I was on the verge of giving up. Each pregnancy and miscarriage was different and traumatic in a different way.
“A lot of clinics said IVF wouldn’t work because I wasn’t having any trouble getting pregnant, which is what the treatment is intended to help with, I just couldn’t hold on to the baby.
“There were some clinics that dealt specifically with recurrent miscarriages, but we still weren’t successful there.”
They were almost ready to give up when Jo saw a competition on Facebook.
“I just clicked in a desperate moment and then completely forgot about it. We proceeded to have our 14th loss and I thought there was no point carrying on, but then I got the email through saying I’d won!
“I had to ring them up and check that it wasn’t an international scam! When my husband and I realised it was true, he said ‘I’ve only ever won a bag of crisps!”
She continued: “Our hearts were in our mouths the entire time. We kept thinking that this was the miracle for us and everything must be falling into place.”
“Then it all started to happen, step-by-step. With every scan and every week I was petrified. Jason had me wrapped in bubble wrap! But I was treated as high-risk and I had appointments or scans more-or-less every fortnight.”
“There was never a moment when we thought ‘Thank goodness for that it’s all going to be OK. Throughout the whole pregnancy, right up to delivery, we held our breath.”
Jessica Rose was born healthy on October 19, weighing 5.7lb.
“Even when she was born I had to keep checking she was really there- I still can’t believe it happened for us. I still check now, but every week she becomes more real,” she expressed.
“People see it as a selfish thing to continue after so many failures and this is why it’s a difficult subject – people just don’t understand why I would do it.”
The happy parents are now hoping to give adorable Jessica a sibling through adoption.
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Replaced!