Dear All,

I am delighted and very very grateful to let you all know that I had a little boy born by caesarian section. We are both well and already at home.

To summarize my Ashermans journey:

I am 37 years old and had two normal healthy pregnancies in 2005 and 2006. My daughter was 4kg at birth and my son 3.5kg. After my son's delivery in 2006 I did not stop bleeding following the delivery and my OB diagnosed RPOC (retained products of conception) 7 weeks post partum. I had a D&C the following day, the bleeding settled down and stopped after a week and I did not resume my periods, which initially did not worry me, because I was breastfeeding. However, 6 months later I still did not have my periods and had stopped breastfeeding, so I was getting concerned. I did my own (internet) research and it was not difficult to guess that AS was the most likely diagnosis. Because we had moved countries (now living in Australia ) and my health insurance did not cover for a while, I had a first hysteroscopy only in August 2008, when the diagnosis of severe AS was confirmed. That was 1 1/2 years post D&C. I subsequently joined the group and found out about an A-lister in Sydney . He performed two hysteroscopic surgeries under GA in November and December 2008. It took him two attempts to remove all adhaesions and he confirmed AS stage III+ (severe stenosis of my cervix and lower part of my uterus), however the rest of my uterine cavity and tubes seemed ok. After each surgery I had a 2 week course of Premarin, which I tolerated well. However, I still did not resume my periods, so I had another in-offive adhaesiolysis in March 2009. I turned out that I had already rescarred and my cervix was closed again. We decided against oestrogen this time (I was told that it does not work that well in cervical stenosis anyway) and ttc right away. And it worked!!!

However, I had spotting for 10 weeks and a massive bleed at 8 weeks, which I did not have with my other children. At 13 weeks I had an appointment with a perinatologist in Sydney who has some experience with post-Asherman pregnancies , just to prepare myself for what I should expect. He was fantastic and took a lot of time. He warned me about IUGR, preterm delivery and placeta accreta. He recommended delivery in a tertiary centre - and am I glad I listened to him!!!

We are currently living in New Zealand , my husband having a job in a smaller town with only a secondary hospital, so we decided to split up the family during my 3rd trimester so that I would have easy access to tertiary care. The pregnancy seemed to go well at first, I had my anatomy scan at 20weeks and the baby looked healthy and was growing on the 50th centile. However, it started to drop off the centiles after 28 weeks and when I was 34 weeks it had hardly grown at all in the previous 2 weeks and was now estimated to be below the 5th centile for weight. Dopplers (blood flow to baby) and fetal movements were normal. A few days later I developed significant swelling of my feet and I was admitted to hospital with pre-eclampsia. I was 34+6 weeks by then. They tried to get my blood pressure under control, which did not wotk, so they decided on a planned c-section after I had had 2 days of steroids for babie's lung.

Our little boy was born on at 35+2 weeks gestation and he was quite a bit heavier than feared. 2110g (instead of estimated 1700g!), which was great. He cried right away and spent 2 days in NICU to keep an eye on blood sugars and temperature, he had one night of phototherapy, but was otherwise completely fine. Breastfeeding on demand after already 4 days!

As far as I am concerned, I did have placenta accreta and everything was set up for an emergency hysterectomy if needed. Even though I did have accreta, they were able to remove it manually, I lost about 1500ml of blood, but I kept my uterus and the bleeding post section has settled down very well. My blood pressure is now almost back to normal and I am feeling great.

My husband and I are very grateful for a lot of things, and we feel it is a miracle that we can hold our little in our arms. It would not have been possible without this website and finding the experts in Sydney . I also realize now how many things could have gone wrong after I fell pregnant - initially all one can think about is to fall pregnant at all. We will therefore not try to have any more children, even though we initially wanted four.

But I want to give all women hope. In August 2008 I was told that I would not be able to have any more children. And here we are!!!

Thank you so much Poly for this website and for the support of all these amazing women over the past 9 months.