Ashleigh Fordham's first baby was a mother's dream; healthy, growing well, and ready to be welcomed by loving parents.
But at just 19 weeks, her water broke. Baby Brayden was born prematurely and Ms Fordham became one of more than 25,000 women to have a pre-term birth that year.
What followed was heartbreak. Ms Fordham and her partner lost Brayden and another three babies, Ambah, Amarni and Ryder to pre-term births three years in a row. Each were born before 23 weeks.
"We had completely given up," she said. "The babies were perfect. It's really traumatic. It's so sad but my body couldn't hold them and they'd come way too soon."
Ms Fordham had a cervical stitch put in before her third pregnancy, but this did not work for her.
"I had the stitch, I had the rubber band, I had the medication - I had everything. My body just couldn't hold the babies," she said.
One in eight women in the Hunter experience pre-term births, with as many as a third happening in the first 34 weeks of pregnancy. It is a tragedy that costs Australia more than $15 billion a year and impacts most families in some way.
Professor Craig Pennell wants to change that. He is a researcher at Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI) in the Mothers and Babies Research Centre and chair of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Newcastle.
He got in contact with Ms Fordham, convincing her to try again.
After much discussion, he performed a "miracle" surgery to permanently close her cervix, meaning Ms Fordham's fifth birth could be performed via c-section. She safely delivered baby Bentley at 37 weeks in August 2022.
And Ms Fordham's story is not an isolated case. Professor Pennell said woman who have one pre-term birth are almost three times are likely to have more.
"The majority of people in the community think pre-term birth as a pregnancy complication has gone away and that's not the case," he said.
"What has happened is the neonatologists have gotten better at managing pre-term babies so the survival rates have improved, but we still have too many babies who are born early."
Fellow mother, Sarah Mumm has given birth six times but is only getting to raise two of her children. Just one was born at full term.
She and her husband Dean helped founded BorneHMRI - a service at HMRI dedicated to ending pre-term birth - after their pregnancy losses.
"It is a way to continue our children's legacy," Ms Mumm said.
The couple hope through their fundraising, the team will find ways to recognise someone is at risk of pre-term birth as early as their first baby. Then, it is time for a cure.
"The reality is, even once we know you are at risk of pre-term birth, there is not always anything that can be done," she said. "You can be monitored, you can be cared for but it can keep happening over and over again.
"Nobody has been able to identify the route causes of pre-term birth."
The research is funded almost entirely by donations. You can donate to BorneHMRI to help try to find a cure online.
"We encourage others to fundraise on our behalf," Ms Mumm said. "We have a dinner that we have done three times now."
At the start of 2018, Mr Mumm walked to the North Pole to raise money. Last year, he and a team hiked Costa Rica for the cause.
Programs like BorneHMRI don't just raise awareness and research - they are crucial for taking care of families who have gone through one of the hardest times in their lives.
Aside from the birth of her beautiful baby at 37 weeks, Ms Fordham's hope was kept alive by an "amazing" medical team, led by Professor Pennell.
"I owe them everything," she said.
She urged other families who have experienced pregnancy loss to reach out to HMRI and John Hunter Hospital.
"It can be so scary," she said. "I don't actually know how I was able to do it."
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Mircale babies: 1300 622 243 (1300 MBABIES).
