Two women who suffered ectopic pregnancies are now raising money for a charity that works with others who have gone through the same tragedies.
An ectopic pregnancy is when a fertilised egg implants itself outside of the womb, usually in one of the fallopian tubes, which leads to the egg having to be removed by either medicine or an operation. According to the NHS, around 11,000 pregnancies a year are ectopic.
Nikki Shields and Louise Zeniou have both had ectopic pregnancies, which led to them now representing CRADLE. This is a national charity working with healthcare professionals within the NHS, to support their pregnancy loss services.
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Nikki opened up about her experience of having an ectopic pregnancy. The 32-year-old from Southport told the ECHO about how it affected her and her husband, Mel. She said: "For both of us it was difficult. Quite a lot of time afterwards was spent recovering from the surgery but afterwards, you realise that you've actually lost a baby as well.
"It took a long time to come to terms with really. At the time there were some charities that dealt with miscarriage in later pregnancies but it was hard finding stuff for earlier pregnancies so I ended up trawling the internet trying to find someone or something that could relate better to it.
"For my partner, I think he found it really difficult because it happened to the woman and so for himself, there was no support for him at the time."
The mum-of-one was cleaning the oven when she suddenly had a sharp pain in her stomach in May 2019. Nikki wrote on the JustGiving page: "At the time, I didn’t know I was pregnant and was at home, with my then one-year-old daughter and husband. I was actually cleaning out my oven when I felt sharp pains in my stomach. I tried to carry on but I had to stop and lie on the couch whilst my husband saw to the baby.
"The pains grew stronger very quickly and within the hour I had rung myself an ambulance. I was given a two-hour waiting time for an ambulance and was advised to make my way to Southport A&E as soon as possible. As my husband doesn’t drive, and I was unable to drive, I rang my dad. He took me to A&E and I told him I’m just getting checked over, not to worry, and I’ll ring when I’m ready to be collected.
Nikki thought she would be home by teatime but she was soon told she was pregnant and then she was rushed to Ormskirk Hospital in an ambulance. She added: "In that ambulance, I had planned our whole lives together in my head. I would keep old baby clothes if it were another girl, move the bedrooms around, buy a bigger car, worked out we could be having a Christmas baby.
"I was even imagining a family Christmas photo shoot. My mind raced, happily planning our new lives on the 7.3-mile ambulance ride. Within 12 hours I had gone from not knowing I was pregnant to needing lifesaving surgery as my right fallopian tube had burst."
Nikki and Louise are now walking from Southport Hospital to Ormskirk Hospital as close to the route that the ambulance took them when they went for surgery for their pregnancies. Supply teacher Nikki explained how it feels to be helping other people who have struggled with pregnancy loss: "It is everything to the women that I speak to on a connected Zoom call each week, knowing that they've got someone there, even when they're still in their hospital beds.
"I spent a lot of time googling things and looking for support but now they have that support straight away. It's so important."
To read more and donate, click here.
