12 pregnancies, 3 live births

by Debbie Betsch
(Cincinnati, Oh)

I delivered a healthy girl at 36 weeks gestation when I was 18 yrs old. Due to my living circumstances at the time, I gave her up for adoption. Several years later, married, I tried again to have children.

Lots of miscarriages followed. I was thinking that I had given up the only child I would ever have. It took until after pregnancy #8 for the doctors to determine that I had a progesterone deficiency. When I was 3 days late in pregnancy #9, a quantitative HCG showed I was pregnant. I immediately started progesterone suppositories and continued those daily and HCG blood tests every other day thru the 13th week of pregnancy. I delivered a healthy boy at 42 weeks gestation. Pregnancy #10 & 11 also resulted in miscarriage, but #12 was successful with another boy, once again at 42 weeks. Thru all the miscarriages, I never carried beyond 8 weeks. I learned to stop telling people I was pregnant. As soon as the news would go out, I would have to then tell them it was over. It was hard seeing babies in stores and was a very devastating time in my life.

I am so thankful for Dr. Claudia Thie who discovered the progesterone problem and treated me very aggressively. My boys are now 20 and 22 yrs old. Technology has come a long way since my pregnancies.