Emilia was born safely on 23 May 2005 - as a direct consequence of successful pre-natal diagnosis of vasa previa. Our story starts at the 20-week anomaly scan, when the sonographer spotted a problem with the placenta. I had placenta praevia and was also diagnosed with vasa praevia. At the time, we didn't know what this was - all we knew was that the baby would have to be delivered by C-section. Our consultant advised us that I should go straight to hospital if I experienced any bleeding. 

     Sure enough, at 24 weeks, I suffered a fairly serious bleed and was admitted to hospital. Luckily the bleeding stopped and during the course of the next few weeks, the original diagnosis of vasa praevia was confirmed by further scans.

     I was advised to stay in hospital for the rest of the pregnancy, for bed rest and observation. It was expected that further bleeding would result in premature birth and we thought that we would be lucky to get to 30 weeks. But the weeks passed by and although it was difficult being apart and we worried about the baby, we managed to stay calm. Antony visited me in hospital every evening and we did lots of crosswords! I was allowed out for the day at weekends, as long as we stayed close to the hospital.  Amazingly, we had no further problems and Emilia was delivered safely by C-section at 38 weeks.

     We are so grateful to the sonographer, Tony Day, who made the original diagnosis, and to all the staff at Pembury Hospital in Kent who cared for us. It can be done - prenatal diagnosis and a managed pregnancy is all it takes.