LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – When most people think of the March of Dimes, they envision efforts to prevent birth defects. But the organization\u2019s funding extends beyond that mission to help women get pregnant in the first place.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe named her Mabry Grace. And then all of a sudden you go in for the next ultrasound and you\u2019re thinking like, at that point, we were just so excited. And then, there\u2019s just no heartbeat and there\u2019s no answer. There\u2019s no reason,\u201d Laura Beth said.<\/p>\n
Miscarriage affects one in five couples<\/p>\n
Laura Beth\u2019s first pregnancy ended in miscarriage. Fertility specialist Dr. Janelle Dorsett said approximately one in five couples, or 20%, suffer miscarriage.<\/p>\n
Dorsett, who is among those who have experienced miscarriage, said she is grateful for new developments like embryo transfers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, many of the infertility clinics around have patients who don\u2019t want to discard their excess embryos. So they donate them to the clinic. They know we\u2019ll try very hard to find a perfect couple that want to have a baby and haven\u2019t been able to,\u201d Dorsett said.<\/p>\n
But even embryo transfers don\u2019t always work. It didn\u2019t for Mabry.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot everyone knows this, but she was actually embryo adopted,\u201d Laura Beth Pleasant said.<\/p>\n
March of Dimes research makes difference<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
This time, research funded by the March of Dimes helped Laura Beth\u2019s pregnancy hold steady.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey 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,\u201d Dorsett said.<\/p>\n
Those two treatments made a significant difference in Laura Beth\u2019s pregnancy.<\/p>\n
Laura Beth explains, \u201cWhen you transfer an embryo, your body doesn\u2019t know that you\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brian had this to say about March of Dimes, \u201cAnd it\u2019s that research that eventually helped us get there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Second embryo adoption succeeds<\/p>\n
The second embryo adoption worked as planned for Laura Beth and Brian. Breklyn was born almost on time and healthy.<\/p>\n
There were scares and peaks of joy during the long-awaited pregnancy. Initially, two embryos were planted.<\/p>\n
Laura Beth shared, \u201cOne just didn\u2019t stick and sometimes that happens. We call Breklyn the little embryo that could.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Now, with Breklyn nine months old, the Pleasants have received a unique invitation.<\/p>\n
Laura Beth announced, \u201cWe\u2019ll 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\u2019d ever get to experience. It\u2019s literally a miracle.\u201d<\/p>\n