Woman gives birth at 48 years old after suffering from 18 miscarriages

Suffering from 18 miscarriages didn’t stop Louise Warneford and her husband from pursuing their dream of starting their own family. After 16 years of trying, their miracle baby finally arrived.

When Louise met her husband, Mark, in 1999, she knew that he was the man he wanted to be with for the rest of her life. The couple was eager to start a family, but Louise’s body refused to cooperate.

Every time Louise becomes pregnant, she loses her baby usually around the 14th week – and this happened not just once, but 18 times.

Mark had undergone a vasectomy during a previous relationship, so the couple resorted to expensive IVF treatments to help Louise get pregnant. Due to the multiple miscarriages, they ended up spending around £80,000 (almost $100,000) on countless rounds of IVF for 16 years.

“Each time I got my hopes up and thought that ‘this was it’ and I was going to have the perfect family I’d always wanted – I couldn’t stop crying every time I miscarried,” Louise told the Daily Mail.

“We decided to try IVF but despite falling pregnant a number of times, we always lost the baby.”

Having been through 18 miscarriages, Louise was on the brink of giving up – until an important revelation from a specialist gave her hope to try again.

“I met a specialist in maternal medicine called Doctor Shehata and he told me that I had killer cells in my body, which was why I couldn’t hold a child,” Louise said.

Four years later at 47 years old, Louise told Mark that they should try to conceive once more before she turned 50.

“This time, because I was too old for certain clinics in the UK, I decided to do my own research and had embryo donation in the Gynem Clinic in Prague,” Louise said.

Louise got pregnant and after a grueling nine months, she gave birth to baby William at 37 weeks via C-section. The newborn was in a perfectly healthy state. The first-time mom was 48 by then.

“Although I couldn’t enjoy my pregnancy, because I was constantly scared that I was going to lose him, it was completely worth it for my dream baby,” Louise recalled.

During those 16 years, she and her husband put their life on hold just to afford the costly IVF treatments. They didn’t go out very often and became very frugal. It was tough, but all the difficulties they faced couldn’t compare to the joy of finally having a baby of their own.

Louise wanted to share her story to provide hope to other couples who are struggling to have a child. She also wanted to raise the discussion about miscarriages.

“We want people to know that it is doable and despite my multiple miscarriages and rounds of IVF, our dream baby was achievable,” she said.

Watch Louise’s interview with 5 News in the video below as she details her inspiring journey to becoming a mother.

UPDATE:  Louise Warneford now has a book called Baby Dreams. This book tells how she went from almost constant grief and loss to the joy she has found today. The name of this joy is William Oliver Warneford. You can buy the book HERE.