Guest Writer Wednesday: Rebecca's Unicornuate Uterus Story

Rebecca, an amazing woman and administrator for two unicornuate uterus support groups on Facebook (Unicornuate Uterus TTC and Unicornuate Uterus Pregnancy and Beyond), shares her story. She shows how there are many different paths to building your family. Thank you for sharing, Rebecca!

Half a uterus?! Say what??

I had always wanted to be a Mom. I can tell you that anyone that has ever known me, could tell you, I have always wanted to be a Mom. I was lucky enough to find my dream husband, had my dream wedding, dream home, and we were ready for the next chapter, a baby.

We started trying to have a baby after our wedding. It was not too long before I did fall pregnant. We were thrilled! But it was not a fairy tale ending to our love story. It ended up being a chemical pregnancy. It was not after that, that we tried again, and I became pregnant, but sadly I miscarried after 6 weeks. I went to see my gynecologist after the miscarriage and instead of waiting to see if I became pregnant again, he decided to send me for testing.

I did the full work up: blood work, had procedures to look at my uterus, and genetic testing and then an MRI. It was after the MRI that I received a phone call from doctor that I had what was called a Unicornuate Uterus, or in layman terms a half a uterus. At the time of hearing the diagnosis, I was devastated and confused! What in the world is a unicornuate uterus and why did I have it? What I heard was basically I would not be able to have children, or if you go by google, it would be very difficult and chance of still born and miscarriages were even higher in my case. I had never felt such an impact from the news. I felt so lost. I became very depressed, felt sorry for myself, I cried every day, why me? 

Regarding my diagnosis, my doctor gave me a few options: IVF, surrogacy, adoption as out best choices to have a family. We did a lot of talking of what the meaning of the word family was and we concluded that adopting a baby and giving that baby love as his or her parents was no different than birthing a baby. 

So, we made some hard decisions, such as talking about selling our dream home and we began the process of adoption. It was four months after we had started the adoption process, completed our paperwork and profile that we got the call, that we were chosen for a baby born adoption. It meant that our daughter’s birth Mother had given birth and chose us to parent a baby girl. You can imagine the feelings that flooded me as I got the call while driving on a busy road that we would need to head to Texas immediately to meet our daughter. She was two days old when we held her for the first time, a perfect baby girl.  While we were on our high from becoming parents so quickly, I realized while I was in the hotel that I had missed my period. We ran out to a drug store and got a pregnancy test, and it was positive! It was few days later while visiting our daughter in the hospital, that I started to bleed. We found out when we came home with our new baby, that we had miscarried twins that time. We started to adjust to our new family and begin our life, sold our home to help off put the cost of the adoption and moved into another great neighborhood, and decided when our daughter was two that we would start for another adoption. We began the paperwork, and were patiently waiting to begin our profile, but something felt off about my body. I took a pregnancy test, it was negative. The same week of my period I still was not getting it, so the morning it was due I took a test and there it was, the two lines!  My husband and I were excited and hopeful but of course optimistic. I was already prepared for the worse situation. I went to doctors’ appointments scared out of my mind to hear what I always did, that I miscarried. The first appointment to hear the heartbeat, I remember praying over and over “Please God let there be a heartbeat!”. Well guess what? We heard it and it was strong! But my anxiety never left. I

had countless appointments to check on the baby to make sure everything was ok, and ultimately everything was, but I still always feared the worst. We did not tell family or friends about the pregnancy until I was about 18 weeks because I was terrified and even then, I worried that it would end soon. I never felt connected to my pregnancy either, I guess that is what having anxiety, miscarriages will do to you. I walked around waiting to see blood appear at every bathroom trip, being pregnant for me was not what I had expected and not what they showed on TV. I made it to 30 weeks when I started to have some complications, I am type one diabetic and went into keto acidosis, which almost had me deliver the baby. The doctors were able to keep me from delivering that week. I started to have high blood pressure as well and that was when my doctor said I would need to deliver if things got worse. It was week 34, that my blood pressure was high all night long. I went to the hospital and had a blood pressure reading of 200/170, I remember the whole room getting quiet as my monitor started to buzz, alerting medical staff to treat me. I was able to stabilize but would have to deliver the baby that day via c-section. I was terrified but excited all at once. I could not wait to meet my baby, but I was scared that he was too early. I gave birth that day to a 4 lb baby boy. When I delivered him, my doctor told the medical staff in the room, “This was a well-deserved baby”.

My children are now 6 years old and 3 years old and healthy and happy. They have completed my heart in more ways than they will ever understand. I could not have made it through my anxiety without my support system which are two groups that I am now one of the administrators for with more than 1,000 women in each group, all with unicornuate uteruses (Unicornuate uterus TTC and Unicornuate Uterus Pregnancy and Beyond), my family and amazing friends, but most of all my husband who picked me up on my worse days. I cannot thank him enough.

If you are struggling with anxiety, depression, or general worry of your pregnancy, please reach out to someone, do not battle those fears alone. My diagnosis may have hindered my plans a bit, but in the end, I pushed through my fears, my anxiety, my courage and I set my goal to become a Mom and conquered it! My hope is that through my story, other women with a rare diagnosis can see that there are options to parent, whether it be adoption, fostering, surrogacy and many other options and treatments.

About Rebecca

My name is Rebecca McCool. My husband Matt and I live in the Philadelphia area with our two beautiful children. I am a social worker and love to help others. I love to be an advocate for adoption and telling others out story. I am also very proud to help manage two very successful support groups that help over 2000 women. I want others to know that you are never alone in your journey, never suffer in silence. There is always someone to listen.