A mother who had endured four miscarriages and an ectopic pregnancy gave birth to a boy after curing her infertility with antibiotics.
Diana Bowden, 39, lost five babies between December 2017 and June 2021, leaving medical officials baffled.
A devastated Diana and her partner, Mike Grosvenor, 41, wondered if they could have children of their own.
However, after participating in a trial for women, recurrent miscarriagesa biopsy revealed that Diana had endometritis, an infection of the uterus that prevents the embryo from implanting properly.
She was prescribed a course of antibiotics and within 12 months she was pregnant with her first child, Freddie, who is now 3 months old.
Diana, an account manager at a recruitment agency, said:
“All I ever wanted to be was a mother.
“I still can’t believe it. I still look at him and think, ‘He’s ours.'”
After meeting at work in May 2018, Diana and Mike immediately agreed they wanted to try it out for their kids.
Just four months after going off birth control, Diana found out she was pregnant, but a 12-week scan revealed she had a miscarriage.
“I didn’t see any symptoms in my body, but the embryo stopped growing at six weeks,” she said.
“The hardest part was expecting to see a baby on screen. I couldn’t get my head around it.”
Diana had three more similar miscarriages in August 2019, February 2020 and August 2020.
“I couldn’t get any further tests until I had three miscarriages, so in April 2020, I did all the tests I could,” she said.
“Mike had a sperm test and it was fine, my ovaries and uterus were perfect.
“We surveyed fertility specialists and got many second opinions through private tests and they were all unequivocal.
“The doctor just told us that we are out of luck and that we should keep trying.”
After her fifth pregnancy, Diana had an ectopic pregnancy, forcing doctors to remove her right fallopian tube in a life-saving operation.
Diana said, “It was terrifying.
“They didn’t know if it was an ectopic pregnancy and said they would have to do keyhole surgery to find out.
“My right fallopian tube ruptured and had to be removed.
“I was very strong, had faith and hope throughout all my losses, but after my first ectopic pregnancy, I started to lose hope.
“I had lost some of my anatomy and I was getting older.
“I never thought I would be able to have a baby.
After their ordeal, the couple told Tommy’s, the baby loss charity that brought Diana to justice to help discover the cause of her miscarriage.
A mother of one said:
“Until then, I felt completely alone, so I was relieved to finally get the right help.
“We went to their research center and had two biopsies taken from my endometrium in October and November 2020.”
A month later, the results turned out to be positive for endometritis.
“They explained that this meant my embryo couldn’t implant and that might be why I lose a baby every time at 6 weeks.
“When they first told me I had endometritis, I didn’t think much of it. I didn’t think so.
“In January 2021, I took a 14-day course of doxycycline antibiotics, one tablet daily.”
Since it was a clinical trial, medical personnel were unsure what the results would be, but they assured Diana that so far the success rate was high.
Diana had to wait three months after receiving antibiotics before having another baby.
Diana and Mike were about to start the early stages of NHS IVF when they discovered that Diana was pregnant.
“I just had a blood test done for IVF treatment and Mike had a semen analysis when I was pregnant,” Diana said.
“It took me a year from the trial to get pregnant, but as before, I was expecting the worst.
“But lo and behold, there was a heartbeat on every scan.
“A 12-week scan told me that I also ovulated from the right side, so the egg would have had to travel to the other fallopian tube for it to work. It was a miracle in itself.”
Diana was worried about the future because she had experienced so many losses in her life.
she said: “The stress and anxiety was horrendous. I expected them to say we lost it every time we scanned it.”
Then, on December 20, 2022, Diana was hospitalized but was induced after her blood pressure was determined to be dangerously high.
“We were taken to the delivery room and had an emergency C-section because the baby’s heart rate was too high.
I was so scared thinking, “What if I’m not alive?”
“As soon as I saw his face, I was so relieved. I just needed to hear him cry, so I was relaxed.”
Diana and Mike’s son Freddie Grosvenor was born at 10:20 p.m. weighing 9 pounds 8 ounces.
She said, “I was very relieved to meet him, but I’m still worried about him.
“I love him to death, but he will never leave me.
“It’s a great feeling to finally be a mother, and it hasn’t sunk in yet.
“The antibiotics cured my infertility. I owe everything to Tommy.
“I am still in awe.”
Now Diana wants to help remove the stigma of losing a baby.
She said, “We were so heartbroken to have him. Sometimes I felt really lonely.
“I think the most important thing is to talk.
“I want other women to know there is hope.”
Tommy’s CERM trial is currently discontinued due to insufficient numbers, Diana has been fundraising all Marchraised funds and awareness for the charities that helped her by walking 8,000 steps a day with Freddie.
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