A Mansfield mum has opened up about her struggles during pregnancy after being told one of her twins might not survive beyond birth. Amie Whitehouse was told after getting pregnant with twins through IVF that one of her children had a potentially deadly heart condition.
Amie, 44, and her husband Simon, were excited to find out they were expecting twins in March 2010. But the couple, who both work for Nottinghamshire Police, were given a tough decision to make when they found out their son was ill.
The pair were first alerted to the problem at their son, Charlie's, 20-week scan. Amie said: "They said that there seemed to be a bit of a problem with his heart. There was quite a large bit missing.
"I then went to a different hospital to see someone more senior and they gave me the news that there was quite a severe heart defect. Having had all the initial scans for Down Syndrome, we were told there was a high chance he might have a serious syndrome that could mean he could be incredibly disabled because of the hole in his heart."
Charlie was diagnosed with a heart condition called Atrioventricular Septal Defect (AVSD) - which meant he had a hole in his heart. Amie was offered the chance to have an amniocentesis – a medical procedure that takes a small sample of amniotic fluid for sampling – to see if her son had any specific chromosomal issues, but was told this could be high risk.
Amie added: "They were IVF twins, so they were much-wanted and much-loved already. So we decided what would be would be. We went to see another consultant at Leicester who was a heart specialist
"She scanned them and basically said there's chance that he could have a chromosomal syndrome, and basically, either he would die shortly after labour, he might not survive the labour or he might only have a heart defect.
"We had lots of options we had to consider, but we decided that we'd very deliberately tried to bring these babies into the world, so we would just let mother nature do her thing."
Amie continued having scans but has shared the difficult toll the pregnancy took mentally and physically. The mum was in out and out of hospital with blood pressure issues, as well as being generally unwell during the nine months.
"At the time it was horrific. It was horrific because they were twins so every midwife appointment we went to the midwife couldn't determine whose heartbeat she could hear.
"I didn't enjoy being pregnant at all because I was frightened, every single day I was frightened that something would happen to him and I wouldn't know. It felt out of my control - there was nothing I could do, nothing the professionals could do - we just had to hope for the best."
Charlie and twin sister Phoebe were born in March 2010, and Charlie had a hole in his heart, but his parents say it hasn't stopped him from being a normal child. The now 13-year-old enjoys trial biking and football, and was described by Aimie as a "cheeky chappie."
But Charlie's childhood has not been without some struggle, and when the youngster's heart started to struggle, he needed surgery. His surgery was scheduled at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester when he was just three years old.
Amie said: "He was in the theatre for eight hours and it was the absolute worst thing either me or my husband had ever been through. We went to a local retail park and sat in Greggs in absolute silence with a coffee because we just had to wait – there was nothing that we could do at all."
The operation was a success and Charlie spent a week in hospital before he was discharged and since then he’s been a healthy boy. The teen goes for regular check-ups and has a small murmur.
Now Amie is off on a trek up Ben Nevis to raise money for the British Heart Foundation (BHF) to thank the charity for the support it gave her during some of her darkest days. Amie will be joining a group from West Notts College in Mansfield, where she worked while taking a career break from the police. Together, the group plan to climb Ben Nevis – the highest peak in the UK – on Friday, July 8.
Amie will just be glad to get up and down again safely – she suffers from a condition called lipoedema which means her legs are likely to swell up and she gets a lot of aches and pains. But she will be spurred on by her cause, with the money she raises going to pay for life-saving research for the BHF.
“Everyone going had to pick a charity close to their heart to fundraise for,” she said. “It was easy for me – for obvious reasons, it was always going to be the British Heart Foundation”.
