At the Mother and Child Clinic of the University Hospital, doctors successfully delivered a baby for a woman who has been living with kidney disease for 15 years and has been on haemodialysis for the past year. Despite her serious health condition, she became pregnant, and this pregnancy came as an unexpected but deeply longed-for event for the family.
The woman says she found out she was pregnant during a visit to the outpatient clinic. Last year she had already had to terminate a pregnancy for medical reasons, so this time the doctors at the Mother and Child Clinic of the University Hospital decided to provide her with the fullest possible support and closely monitor the course of the pregnancy in order to give the baby a chance to be born.
The head of the Department of Extragenital Pathology and Pregnancy Pathology at the Mother and Child Clinic of the University Hospital, Yurii Burak, notes that such cases are extremely rare. According to him, in almost 40 years of work this is only the second such case in which a woman on dialysis has not only become pregnant but has also been able to carry the pregnancy. The patient managed to carry the baby to 35 weeks, despite the impact of renal failure on the foetal development.
Throughout the pregnancy, the woman underwent haemodialysis twice a week, and after being admitted to the Mother and Child Clinic the procedures were carried out three times a week. During her stay in hospital, the doctors identified a risk of intrauterine foetal death and therefore decided to perform a caesarean section.
A baby girl, Teresa, was born weighing about 2 kilograms 100 grams. Just 22 minutes after birth, the newborn was transferred to the intensive care unit, where doctors managed to stabilise her condition. The girl completed the necessary course of therapy, and on the tenth day of life she was transferred from intensive care to the step-down unit, where her mother was able to join her.
Neonatologist at the Mother and Child Clinic of the University Hospital, Iryna Nosova, said that on the tenth day after birth the mother was already able to be with her daughter in the same room and fully care for her. Examinations showed that Teresa’s kidneys are developing without pathological changes.
The girl’s mother continues to undergo haemodialysis, but now her daughter is always by her side. The woman expressed her heartfelt gratitude to the entire medical team of the Mother and Child Clinic of the University Hospital for their support and efforts, thanks to which this pregnancy and the birth of the baby became possible.
Teresa’s story is an example of the well-coordinated work of doctors and the strength of parents’ desire to have a child, even in very challenging medical circumstances.