Be Happy for Tomorrow - Interviewing Maya

Today Zoe speaks with Maya from the Instagram account @caribbeansnowflake about the tragic loss of her son Leo at 12 days old and her journey to becoming a mum for a second time via IVF to her son Freddie. Maya has incredible strength and resilience to endure what she has had to go through as a mother, but she has always tried to live her life filled with gratitude and positivity and this shines through in the way she talks about her trauma.     KEY TAKEAWAYS   Maya met her husband on a ski trip and at first didn’t even like each other! But they met again and discovered they had a lot in common and the rest is history. Both Maya’s pregnancy and labour with Leo was quite straightforward and normal. Living in the Cayman Island her pregnancy and birth was Dr lead, but this is standard. It was only the Monday after the birth when Leo wasn’t feeding well and the Dr thought he was looking a bit weak that they started running tests and put Leo on a feeding tube in the nicu.   The long days and nights waiting for a diagnosis were extremely hard and difficult for Maya and her husband. You aren’t supposed to be apart from your baby. After many scans and test they still did not know what was wrong with Leo and he was going downhill fast, the Drs had to incubate him and were recommending that they took him to Miami – they were told at best he would be severely disabled. Once they arrived in Miami Leo had more tests and he was finally diagnosed with a severe case of NKH, which is a genetic disorder caused by a mutation. It is very rare but is terminal and severely affects quality of life. After having the diagnosis, they made the difficult decision to turn off Leo’s life support, it was devastating. The aftermath of Leo’s death was heartbreaking and traumatic but Maya and her husband really wanted to bring another baby home in the future. They underwent genetic testing on themselves and discovered they would have a 1 in 4 chance of having a baby with NKH. They chose to go down the IVF route so that all their embryos could be genetically tested. Knowing that it wasn't the end of the road helped them with their grief. They had one genetically clear embryo, they had this transplanted successfully and 9 months later they had their son Freddie.     BEST MOMENTS   “That was probably the shittest night of my life”   “There can’t be anything wrong with him, look how perfect he is”   “Your brain can’t process all that information at once”   “It was his gift to us that they all got to meet him”   "It helped with the grief knowing it wasn't the end of the road"    VALUABLE RESOURCES No Matter What: https://www.amazon.co.uk/No-Matter-What-DebiGliori/dp/1408850001/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=no+matter+what&qid=1623171787&sr=8-1 www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk       ABOUT THE GUEST Maya IG: @caribbeansnowflake IG: @makingittomotherhood         ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe’s goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe’s own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell