40-year-old mum has tubes ‘untied’ after 12 years, welcomes miracle baby

A Perth couple are celebrating their first Christmas with their “miracle baby”, born after mum Donna Fiorenza reversed her tubal ligation and battled serious pregnancy complications.

Closed shop?

“She is a bit of miracle, seeing as I had my tubes tied for 12 years,” Donna told Perth Now.

Donna conceived just eight months after having her tubal ligation reversed, and gave birth to baby Ella ten months ago.

While falling pregnant seemed miraculously easy after her tube-tie rethink, things got a lot trickier very quickly.

Pear-shaped

At 12 weeks, the couple discovered Donna was suffering from placenta percreta – a condition where the placenta grows through the uterine wall and attaches to another organ, such as the bladder.

There’s a serious likelihood of haemorrhaging with this condition, so the rest of the mum’s pregnancy was navigated in the high-risk category.

At 31 weeks, her doctor’s concerns became a reality as the pregnant mum began to haemorrhage.

Donna was rushed to hospital and she and her baby each underwent a six hour operation. Teams from the Fiona Stanley Hospital and the King Edward Memorial Hospital worked together to save the pair’s lives. Donna required some drastic surgery – a hysterectomy and the the removal of part of her bladder.

Trying times

“Peter didn’t know whether he was going to come out of this with a wife or baby or none. It was quite hard for him,” Donna told Perth Now.

The new mum remained in hospital for two weeks following the birth and subsequent procedures.

Baby Ella stayed in the Fiona Stanley Hospital neonatal unit for almost eight weeks, growing stronger by the day.

Thankful

Donna was super-grateful to the team who cared for her and her baby girl during a really challenging time and said their support of her husband Peter was invaluable.

“The support Peter had from all departments was amazing.”

The family are now poised to spend their very first Christmas together, a fantastic success story after a challenging start.