Theo’s Story - Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH)

You always think your pregnancy is going to be fine. Well, that’s what I thought anyway, but not this time.

When we attended our routine 20-week anatomy scan, we were told that the ultrasound couldn’t be completed due to the baby’s position. However, they said they wanted to send the scan pictures they took to maternal-fetal medicine. As you can imagine, we were very confused because we had not been told anything during the scan. A few days later, we arrived at my local hospital for a rescan by a consultant and that’s when the devastating news was given - our baby had something called Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH).

As they told us our options, we were completely destroyed. Our baby deserved a chance to live and we certainly were not going to give up without a fight. We had regular scans and monitoring during pregnancy. His lungs were little but continued to grow. I had extra water and I was being carefully monitored as well. The anxiety throughout my pregnancy was awful and very stressful. We were induced in St. Thomas Hospital in London at 38 weeks 6 days. After a very intense labor of 10 hours and lots of scares along the way, Theo was born! He was 8 pounds 8 ounces and even gave us a little cry!

We knew he would have a rocky road ahead from that moment on but little did we know he was a lot stronger than we thought. He was so stable that he had his repair surgery on day two and, on day four, he was extubated! He was only four days old and breathing on his own! On day eight, he was transferred back to our local hospital on only an NG feeding tube. 

He continued to thrive and, on day sixteen, he was ready to go home! A few days later though, he was readmitted for bilious vomiting and was in the hospital for 9 days. Theo is now 13 weeks old and, well, a picture speaks 1,000 words. You can see he is doing really well. You would never know he was born so sick. He has a CMPA and reflux, but we are now on top of it and he is thriving! 

Believe in yourself and believe in your baby! 

They are miracles! 

They are strong! 

We’ve got this! 

Being a parent to a CDH baby is a whole load of anxiety, but they are the strongest babies in the world!