Yorkshire mum who was told her womb was 'uninhabitable' gives birth to miracle baby 16 years after endometriosis diagnosis

Her long journey to be a mum started at the age of 16, when she waited eight years for an NHS referral that never came to help her with a medical condition called endometriosis.

After her womb was described as ‘uninhabitable’ she thought she was never going to have a baby of her own.

But after extensive surgery, she was able to have fertility treatment and now she and husband Andrew, an agricultural services manager, finally have the family they have dreamt of.

Mrs George, 32, a marketing manager from North Ferriby near Hull, said: "We have been waiting such a long time for Caleb, and now he’s here, we can’t quite believe it.

"We look at him every day and know what a miracle he really is. We thought we would never be parents, so now we feel incredibly blessed."

Mrs George first started suffering from symptoms of endometriosis at the age of 16. It is a condition which causes scarring to build up in the womb and fallopian tubes, making it difficult to fall pregnant.

She waited for an NHS referral for help for eight years, but it never came through. So the couple, who were desperate to have a family, paid for a private consultation and surgery.

Mrs Georgesaid: ‘I waited year after year to get a referral appointment on the NHS, but it never came. I was getting desperate by this stage.

‘I knew that I needed help if I ever wanted to have a family, so Andrew and I decided to pay for a private referral instead.’

So in September 2016 - eight years after she first asked for help on the NHS - she was seen by a consultant, who carried out surgery to remove all the scarring from her womb.

She said: ‘It was a long operation as there was so much scarring, and he removed it all by hand. He had said my womb had been uninhabitable before, so there had been no chance of having a baby.’

The couple had to wait 18 months after Mrs George’s surgery whilst her body recovered, and wanted to start IVF treatment in 2020, but couldn’t because of lockdown. Then Mr George developed Covid, so it wasn’t until March the following year that they started the treatment at Hull and East Riding Fertility.

Doctors managed to retrieve six eggs, five fertilised, and one embryo was placed into Mrs George’s womb.

She said: ‘It was a tense two-week wait, but then I did a pregnancy test and it had two positive lines on it. I couldn’t believe that I was actually pregnant. It was amazing, after all we had been through.’

Her pregnancy went smoothly until she was 36 weeks, and doctors said they couldn’t find the baby's heartbeat.

She said: ‘They thought they were going to have to rush me for an emergency caesarian, but then they managed to find it. But then I went into labour a few days later.’

Caleb was born in January. But then just minutes after the delivery, Mrs George started to haemorrhage and lost three and half litres of blood. It was most of the blood in her body, which has five litres in total.

She said: ‘Andrew thought he was going to lose me, and be bringing Caleb up on his own. Luckily the doctors managed to stop the bleeding, and I was given five blood transfusions afterwards.’

Mrs George made a recovery, but then battled through pancreatitis when Caleb was just a few weeks old.

She said: ‘That was incredibly difficult, being separated from him when he had only just been born. But now thankfully we are all at home now, and I have made a good recovery. We can now enjoy being a family together.

‘It has been such an emotional journey to be a mum - and one that started when I was just 16. It has taken 13 years but now we finally have our miracle baby. We feel like the luckiest parents in the world.’

Pam Andrew, from Hull and East Riding Fertility, who are due to open their first satellite clinic in York at the end of April, said: ‘Infertility can be devastating for couples. We were delighted to be able to help Esther and her husband have their baby son.’