I am taking on the London marathon in 2025! As many of you know, I have spent the past 3 years pregnant and/or breastfeeding and whilst I have two beautiful baby boys to show for this, what I don’t have is any sort of fitness to shout about. So this is going to be a huge challenge for me, but one that I’m happy to commit to in order to raise some money for a charity very close to my and my family’s hearts: Antenatal Results and Choices (ARC).

Matt and I had our second son, Thomas, on 8 April 2024. Whilst our pregnancy with our first son, James, was smooth sailing, our pregnancy with Thomas was a different journey.

The pregnancy started out very much the same, and we arrived at our 12 week scan fully expecting to skip away with a blurry black and white Polaroid picture of our little bean. Instead, our sonographer told us that our baby had excess fluid behind his neck, ushered us into a private room, and advised us that a midwife would be along to discuss our “options”.

Over the next few hours and days, things went from bad to worse. Our baby boy was diagnosed with cystic hygroma (which is essentially fluid filled cysts on the neck) and skin edema (fluid on the chest). Our consultant told us that prognosis was “very poor” and our boy had less than 5% chance of survival. We were advised that the cystic hygroma was likely caused by a chromosomal abnormality, a genetic disorder, a heart defect or a structural defect. Our consultant spoke about medical termination at length, but we instead opted for further testing.

I underwent chorionic villus sampling, which involves removing and testing a small sample of cells from the placenta to check if the baby has a genetic or chromosomal condition. This was essentially a large needle being injected through my stomach and into my womb, which was as uncomfortable as it sounds! We then had to wait for two excruciating weeks to get the results. We were prepared for the worst and could not believe it when the results came back clear: our baby did not have a chromosomal or genetic disorder.

As positive as these results were, they prolonged definitive answers because we had to wait a further six weeks to have the scan which assessed our boy’s heart and other organs.

During the next scan, by what still feels like a miracle, the skin edema had disappeared completely and the cystic hygroma had largely resolved. His heart and other organs were also assessed in detail and appeared normal.

We were told at this point that our baby had a much better prognosis. We continued to have regular scans, and on 8 April 2024, our little miracle was born. A team of paediatricians checked him over as soon as he was born, and he was given the all clear. He was and is perfectly healthy.

Whilst our story has a happy ending, our pregnancy was filled with worry and no amount of positive scans could get us past that initial “less than 5% chance” prognosis. I would have struggled to get through it without the help of ARC.

I read about ARC on a cystic hygroma forum, and I reached out to them several times throughout the pregnancy. ARC provide parents with non-directive information and support before, during and after antenatal screening. They are there for every parent who faces a suspected or diagnosed fetal anomaly.

Over 20,000 expectant parents a year are told that their baby may have a genetic or structural condition. Please donate what you can to help ARC be there for anxious expectant and bereaved parents in the future.

Thank you if you’ve managed to read this far and thank you doubly for any donations!

Love Sabrina, Matt, James and our little miracle, Thomas x