A pregnant mum has delighted to see her unborn baby kicking her legs on a scan after tricky spinal surgery while she was inside the womb. Sarah Copeland, 36, had three miscarriages before she fell pregnant, but her 20 week scan revealed the baby girl had spina bifida.
The special educational needs teacher said doctors told her she would be born paralysed from the waist down if they didn't act fast. So Sarah had rare surgery last month, which saw medics fix a hole in her baby's spine while she was still in Sarah's womb.
After the op a scan showed the baby wriggling her little legs, showing it had been a success. Spina bifida is a neural tube defect when a baby's spine and spinal cord does not develop properly in the womb, causing a gap in the spine.
Sarah and partner Christian Rayner, 43, are due to welcome the girl on July 22. Sarah, from Billericay, Essex, said: "She's my little miracle, and I'm so relieved the op went well.
"We felt truly blessed to see her moving her legs. It was very overwhelming. They scanned her straight away and she’s dancing around happy as Larry.
"She's using them fully, and you can see the scar on her has healed already. It’s so lovely to be home and for my baby to be doing fine.
"I couldn’t fault the NHS and the hospital at all. The care and the cleanliness was outstanding. I’ve not known care like that before. They were so friendly and supportive which made it as pleasant as it could be."
Sarah and Christian, a window installer, lost a pregnancy at 10 weeks last July. Sarah, mum to daughter Mylee, 11, had two miscarriages before, and found out she was pregnant in November.
Sarah was 20 weeks pregnant when medics at Basildon Hospital noticed her baby had spina bifida. Sarah was referred to a specialist team at hospital in Southend, and then King's College Hospital, London, for surgery on April 26.
Nerves had come through a hole at the bottom of her baby's spine, and were being damaged by exposure to spinal fluid, Sarah said. And if untreated, her baby would not be able to move from the waist down by the time she was born, she added.
There was also danger of damage to her baby's brain. Sarah was 27 weeks pregnant at the time of the op, which gave her baby a 90% chance of gaining movement in her lower body, she said.
Doctors made a cut like a C-section, then used keyhole surgery to go into the protective amniotic sack. They put the nerves back into baby's spine and closed the hole with a skin patch.
Sadly scans showed damage to some nerves so her bladder and bowel might still be affected. Sarah said: "I’m just so glad that she can move, there will be so much more she’ll be able to do now than if I hadn’t had the op.
"She's moving her legs fully, but we're not sure yet if she'll have the muscle tone to stand or walk, and if she does it will take her longer. We’re getting the garden flattened so we can get a hot tub and she can have private therapy there."
