02 June 2024 , 09:59
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A married couple have told of their 'absolute joy' after giving birth to a miracle baby following six miscarriages.
Charlie and Lynette Bathgate, both 42, had spent ten heartbreaking years trying to bring a child into the world without success. And they almost gave up on their dream of becoming parents until a doctor urged Lynette to try a medicine on the NHS normally taken prior to IVF treatment.
She was 'filled with anxiety' when she then fell pregnant for the seventh time, having suffered six heartbreaking miscarriages before. But their daughter - appropriately named Faith - arrived by emergency caesarean section on December 10 last year, weighing 8lb, 5oz.
Lynette said of the moment she first held her baby girl: "It was the most fantastic feeling in the world. I can't describe it. I've always heard people say holding your own child is the best feeling in the world, and I never could relate to it really. I think I blocked those feelings out, thinking I would never have a child.
Charlie and Lynette Bathgate holding Faith for the first time in hospital (Lynette Bathgate/SWNS)"But I just can't describe the absolute joy and love I had for her straight away. She's such a little character already. She's so independent and so funny and she's just fantastic. She's the best thing that's ever happened to me." Charlie added: "To actually see her and know she was there and everything was alright, it was just the most amazing feeling ever.
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"She is such a happy, content little thing. She is always smiling and giggling. Even now, you still don't think it's quite real. You look at her and think, 'Wow, that's our daughter'." Charlie, a lorry driver, and Lynette, a residential support worker, from Dalton-in-Furness, Cumbria, said they had suffered their first miscarriage in around 2014.
And this trend continued over the following years, with the pregnancies sadly never going past 12 weeks. Lynnette had been diagnosed with polycystic ovaries, a condition leading to irregular periods and the release of excess male hormones, making conception harder.
She said about the experience: "I spent most of the time doing pregnancy tests and ovulation tests, and it kind of took over your life in a way. It was also really hurtful seeing friends get pregnant and having babies and family members and things like that. After the sixth miscarriage, I had kind of given up in a way. It was in August just before Covid. We were due to go on holiday the same day.
Baby Faith (Lynette Bathgate/SWNS)"I'd had a bit of bleeding and I was due to go on holiday a few days later. And then I had to go back for a scan in the hospital the same day we were going on holiday, and I was told there was no heartbeat or anything."
Lynette said a doctor at Old St Mary's Hospital, in Manchester, encouraged her and Charlie to keep going with their attempts to become parents despite the setbacks. And he then gave her the chance to take a medicine called Bemfola - offered to IVF patients before surgery - which helps to stimulate the growth of eggs in the ovaries.
Lynette took the treatment through a series of self-administered injections before attempting to conceive a baby naturally. She said of learning she was pregnant for the seventh time last year: "My anxiety was through the roof because of what happened previously.
"A week after I found out, I had a little bleed. I just thought, 'Here we go again' it was just exactly the same as I had before with the miscarriages. But she must have been a tough cookie and kept hanging on." When Faith arrived via caesarean section, she was initially taken to a special care ward - with Lynette allowed to meet her a few hours later.
Baby Faith has been described as a 'miracle' (Lynette Bathgate/SWNS)She said: "They wheeled me down in the bed and took me to her. She was in an incubation, and I said, 'Please can I hold her?' It was quite strange really because her oxygen levels were really low, but as soon as they put her on my chest, her oxygen levels went normal."
Proud Charlie said Faith is fit and healthy six months on from her birth. And he said one of her favourite things is to watch cricket matches with him on the television. Charlie said: "She loves watching cricket. I like it, and if you put the cricket on the TV, she will sit on my knee for an hour and a half, two hours, watching cricket with me."
The parents are organising a fundraiser for two miscarriage charities in August to thank them and help support others going through similar experiences. Visit Charlie's fundraiser for Tommy's, the baby charity to donate.
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