LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – When most people think of the March of Dimes, they envision efforts to prevent birth defects. But the organization’s funding extends beyond that mission to help women get pregnant in the first place.
Laura Beth Pleasant desperately wanted to have a baby and tried for 12 years. Her husband Brian described their long struggle with various methods and the emotional turmoil they endured.
“We named her Mabry Grace. And then all of a sudden you go in for the next ultrasound and you’re thinking like, at that point, we were just so excited. And then, there’s just no heartbeat and there’s no answer. There’s no reason,” Laura Beth said.
Miscarriage affects one in five couples
Laura Beth’s first pregnancy ended in miscarriage. Fertility specialist Dr. Janelle Dorsett said approximately one in five couples, or 20%, suffer miscarriage.
Dorsett, who is among those who have experienced miscarriage, said she is grateful for new developments like embryo transfers.
“Well, many of the infertility clinics around have patients who don’t want to discard their excess embryos. So they donate them to the clinic. They know we’ll try very hard to find a perfect couple that want to have a baby and haven’t been able to,” Dorsett said.
But even embryo transfers don’t always work. It didn’t for Mabry.
“Not everyone knows this, but she was actually embryo adopted,” Laura Beth Pleasant said.
March of Dimes research makes difference
After losing Mabry, Laura Beth and Brian learned of another family looking for couples to adopt embryos they had saved but were not going to use. They were selected for a second embryo transfer.
This time, research funded by the March of Dimes helped Laura Beth’s pregnancy hold steady.
“They fund many, many scientific studies to determine what protocol is best, such as the use of progesterone and the use of baby aspirin in pregnancy,” Dorsett said.
Those two treatments made a significant difference in Laura Beth’s pregnancy.
Laura Beth explains, “When you transfer an embryo, your body doesn’t know that you’re pregnant. And so you have to have that progesterone to tell our body to hold on to the baby and then the low dose aspirin just helps with like blood flow and blood flow getting to the baby.”
Brian had this to say about March of Dimes, “And it’s that research that eventually helped us get there.”
Second embryo adoption succeeds
The second embryo adoption worked as planned for Laura Beth and Brian. Breklyn was born almost on time and healthy.
There were scares and peaks of joy during the long-awaited pregnancy. Initially, two embryos were planted.
Laura Beth shared, “One just didn’t stick and sometimes that happens. We call Breklyn the little embryo that could.”
A puzzle framed on her wall serves as a reminder that it took support from family, friends and supporters to help cover the cost of the second embryo transfer.
Now, with Breklyn nine months old, the Pleasants have received a unique invitation.
Laura Beth announced, “We’ll soon be able to meet the donor parents family. We will forever be grateful to them for giving us this gift, to be able to still carry her, to feel her kick, to hear her heartbeat on an ultrasound, to get to deliver her, I mean all of those things that I never thought that I’d ever get to experience. It’s literally a miracle.”
Anyone interested in donating to the March of Dimes, can do so by clicking here.
Copyright 2025 KCBD. All rights reserved.