GLOUCESTER, UK, June 29, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Weeks after an Arizona woman gave birth to a healthy baby carried outside her womb, it has been revealed that another ectopic pregnancy – usually considered hopeless – ended happily after a British woman gave birth to her daughter, who now celebrates her first birthday.
The U.K. Daily Mail on Sunday published the story of Gloucester residents Paula Cawte and Paul Lounds, who were told by doctors that continuing to carry their daughter Eva would pose a considerable risk to Paula’s health, as the baby girl was growing outside her mother’s womb.
“We had been trying for over a year to have a baby and there was no way I could terminate when I knew she was healthy,” Cawte told the Mail. “We knew it was dangerous. The doctors said I could bleed to death if she ruptured an organ or an artery.
“But Paul and I agreed that as long as I was in no immediate danger, we continue for as long as possible to give the baby a fighting chance.”
The vast majority of ectopic pregnancies implant in the fallopian tube, forcing doctors to remove the unborn child in a procedure that indirectly causes the child’s death, and that is not considered an abortion by pro-life ethicists. In Cawte’s case, Eva had a slim chance of survival because she implanted outside the fallopian tube, and the membrane of her mother’s abdomen had created a sac around her.
The parents recalled that despite their determination to carry on with the pregnancy, the news was a major blow – “we both burst into tears,” Lounds said. The pregnancy also caused Cawte “intense pain” at times.
In giving birth, Paula nearly bled to death; she received eight pints of blood when surgeons performed a C-section to retrieve Eva at only 30 weeks gestation. But the mother’s heroic decision paid off, and the miraculous happened: out of an ectopic pregnancy emerged two healthy lives.
“She’s beautiful, the most stunning looking baby and everything’s on track,” said Cawte. “There’s nothing about her that tells you she was so premature. She smiles a lot and is very content.”
Last month, the Arizona Republic reported that 27-year-old Nicollete Soto gave birth to her ectopic son, Azelan Cruz, also after refusing intervention that would have killed him. As a blastocyst, Azelan had attached to the area where the fallopian tube meets the uterus, a condition known as a cornual pregnancy.
“We took a risk,” said Soto’s boyfriend. “We left it for the doctors to decide when to deliver the baby and God to decide everything else.”