Why I Walk Wednesday: Lucy

At their initial prenatal visit, Lucy’s parents found out they were having monochorionic diamniotic twins, identical twins who share a placenta but have separate amniotic sacs. From early on, one twin was measuring much smaller and they were diagnosed with early onset twin to twin transfusion syndrome, a dangerous and potentially fatal complication. Furthermore, at the first trimester screening, the smaller baby was diagnosed with holoprosencephaly, a severe brain abnormality. The doctors thought it was likely that both of the twins had a severe chromosomal abnormality; however, the bigger twin had appeared normal on all ultrasounds. Due to the TTTS and the very sick twin, the difficult decision was made to have a selective cord coagulation laser procedure by the fetal therapy team at Johns Hopkins in hopes to save the other twin. After much testing (two amniocentesis and one CVS procedure), it was determined that the remaining baby was a healthy girl and did not share her sister’s chromosomal deletion. Then, just shy of 28 weeks, at a routine prenatal visit, Lucy’s mother was diagnosed with preeclampsia and admitted after presenting with high blood pressure and proteinuria. She spent the next 22 out of 27 days in the hospital being closely monitored until on Feb 17th, Lucy was born at 31 weeks, weighing just 2lbs, 8.6 ounces. She was born via C-section after a failed induction attempt. She spent the next 45 days in the NICU and was able to go home two weeks shy of her due date. She is now a healthy, happy one-year-old. Lucy's mom is a nurse practitioner at The Pediatric Center who participates in March for Babies because she knows that March of Dimes is hope for the future and improved pregnancy and birth outcomes.