Baby surprise for kidney dialysis woman

[okarol]

Baby surprise for kidney dialysis woman

Published Date: 16 November 2009

A Bristol woman who was told she could die if she fell pregnant has given birth to a healthy boy that she did not know she was carrying for seven months.

Julianne Lewtas, 20, has kidney failure and needs dialysis and was told if she became pregnant she could suffer a miscarriage or even die.

Despite taking the contraceptive pill she discovered she was expecting her first child at the start of October after an emergency scan showed she was 28 weeks pregnant. Four weeks later she gave birth to Gene weighing 4lbs 7ozs and mother and child are now back home in Hartcliffe, Bristol.

Doctors at Southmead Hospital say Gene is the first baby to be born at the hospital in 40 years while the mother was on "peritoneal" kidney dialysis.

Miss Lewtas was put on the donor list a year ago and a live donor transplant from her mother Liz was being considered but that has now been put on hold.

Miss Lewtas, who was born with kidney failure, has been on medication since she was four years old and has been undergoing kidney dialysis for almost a year.

She noticed she had put on some weight but put it down to her dialysis treatment and did not have any idea that she might have been pregnant until four weeks before doctors carried out a Caesarean after concerns for the baby's health.

Miss Lewtas, a manager at Pizza Hut in Hengrove Park, has been with her partner Matt Parnell for six years but still lives at home with her mother.

"I had been told several years ago that if I fell pregnant it would either kill me or I would miscarry," she told the Bristol Evening Post. "I was quite shocked but quite pleased, it is what I always wanted but had thought it would not happen for another six years at least."

Gene's birth was filmed by doctors because it was rare for a woman on dialysis to have a baby.

http://www.farminglife.com/latest-south-west-news/Baby-surprise-for-kidney-dialysis.5827966.jp

[Hanify]

I cannot for the life of me imagine how you would have room for a baby when you're on PD!!  Amazing.

[Jean]

Boy, what a shock that must have been. Wonder if the baby was tiny.Wonder why she never felt any life, altho, first baby, maybe she just thought it was the fluid?

[jennyc]

I was told not to expect to get past 26 weeks whilst on PD. And if i fell preg on Haemo i'd be doing it every day, not an issue though since had my tubes done in 04.

God love her though, she must be over the moon. I saw how hard it was for the long time D female patients who were told they'd never have kids.  I guess it gives everyone hope