It's estimated that one in four pregnancies end in loss during pregnancy or birth in the UK, according to leading baby charity Tommy's. Diana Bowden knows just how painful and traumatic it is to lose a baby, as she endured four miscarriages and an ectopic pregnancy in the space of four years.
After taking part in a trial for women with infertility problems, Diana was diagnosed with endometritis. The 39-year-old was prescribed a simple course of antibiotics, and within 12 months, went on to conceive her first child.
Diana, who is mum to three-month-old Freddie, told the Mirror: "We have had our little rainbow baby. All I've ever wanted to be is a mum.
"A lot of women would have stopped trying at a certain point. I still can't believe it, I still look over at him and think, 'he's ours'.
"A course of antibiotics cured my infertility, and I owe everything to Tommy's. I never thought I'd be able to have a baby.
"I was looking into surrogacy and adoption because I was getting to the point where I didn't think it would happen. I'm still in awe."
Diana met her partner Mike Grosvenor, 41, in May 2018 through work at a vehicle logistics company, and they both agreed they wanted to try for kids right away.
Just four months after stopping contraception, Diana found out she was pregnant, but the 12-week scan revealed she had suffered a miscarriage.
"My body had not showed any symptoms of it, but the embryo had stopped growing at six weeks," she explained.
"The most difficult thing was expecting to see a baby on screen, I just couldn't get my head around it."
Diana went on to have three more similar missed miscarriages, in August 2019, February 2020 and August 2020.
She said: "On the NHS you can't have any further tests until you've had three miscarriages, so in April 2020 they did every test possible on us.
"Mike had his sperm tested and it was fine, and my ovaries and uterus were perfect.
"We even researched fertility specialists and got lots of second opinions through private testing but they all came back clear. Doctors just told us we were unlucky and to keep trying."
After falling pregnant for a fifth time, Diana had an ectopic pregnancy and medics were forced to remove her right fallopian tube to save her life at Worcestershire Royal Hospital.
"I'd been quite strong throughout all my losses, and I'd had faith and hope, but after my ectopic pregnancy that was the first time I had started to lose hope," Diana said.
"I was losing part of my woman's anatomy and I was getting older too."
Then Diana was set up on a trial with Tommy's to help discover the cause of her miscarriages.
''It was a relief to finally be getting proper help as we felt like we were totally alone before that," she said.
The couple travelled to their research centre in Coventry, where they took two biopsies from the lining of her womb, and diagnosed her with endometritis.
"They explained that it meant my embryos couldn't implant, and that could potentially be why I was losing my babies every time at six-weeks," Diana explained.
"In January 2021, I was put on a course of the doxycycline antibiotics for 14 days, taking one tablet every day.
"Because it was a trial nobody knew what would happen, but they did tell me the women who had been tested had had a really good success rate.
"When they first told me I had endometritis I didn't think much of it. It's good they found something, but I didn't think anything would come of it."
Diana had to wait three months after taking the course of antibiotics before she could begin trying for another baby and see if the medication had cured her infection.
They were about to begin the early stages of NHS IVF when they discovered Diana had fallen pregnant.
"We just thought if the worst case scenario happens and we can't conceive naturally we've tried everything," she said.
"It took a year after the trial to conceive, and I expected the worst as I did before. But low and behold at every scan there was a heartbeat.
"At my 12-week scan I was told I'd ovulated from my right side too, so the egg would have had to travel to my other fallopian tube to work, which was a miracle in itself.
"The stress and anxiety was horrendous, at every scan I was expecting them to say we'd lost it."
On December 20, Diana was admitted to Torbay Hospital where she was induced into labour after her blood pressure was deemed dangerously high.
"I was so scared thinking 'what if he's not alive'. It was a massive relief as soon as I saw his face, I just needed to hear him cry and then I relaxed," she said.
Freddie Grosvenor was born at 10.20pm weighing 9lbs 8oz, and Diana says "it's still not sunk in" that she's a parent.
"I love him to death but it's never going to leave me. He's our little rainbow baby, it feels amazing to finally be a mum," she said.
''We went through so much heartache to have him, at times I felt really alone. I think the most important thing is to talk.
"Don't be ashamed of it. I didn't talk about it for so long but the awareness needs to be out there. I want other women struggling to know there is hope.''
Due to a lack of numbers, Tommy's CERM trial has now stopped, but Diana is fundraising throughout March walking 8,000 steps a day with little Freddie to raise money and awareness for the charity that helped her.
You can visit Diana's fundraising page to donate towards Tommy's.
Do you have a miracle pregnancy story to share? Email nia.dalton@reachplc.com.
