A big black mass on unborn baby Rex’s 29-week ultrasound scan showed a hole in Katrina Pugh’s placenta.
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The mass indicated her placenta – the thing keeping her son alive – had torn away from the uterus wall.
It marked the start of numerous hospital visits for Mrs Pugh and her husband Jesse, including a flight to the Royal Hobart Hospital where she stayed for more than two weeks on constant watch.
But the parents say an extraordinary thing happened – the hole disappeared.
Doctors expected the baby to arrive early. Instead he remained inside his mother’s womb until 38 weeks of pregnancy, when on May 21 last year Rex Christian arrived by natural birth at the Launceston General Hospital.
It was not physically, medically possible for it to fix itself, but mine did.
- Katrina Pugh
Coining him “a miracle baby”, Mrs Pugh said the hole had managed to fix itself.
“Every two weeks they do a proper scan and on one of the scans they couldn’t see the abruption anymore. Mrs Pugh said.
“There was this big black mass on the ultra sound that showed the hole where the placenta had come away. In the following weeks there was no hole and they couldn’t explain why.
“My obstetrician said ‘it is not possible for it to have healed itself [but] we can’t see it anymore’. It was not physically, medically possible for it to fix itself, but mine did.”
The couple said the safe arrival of their miracle was due to higher forces at play.
“We had hundreds of people in our community, church, school, work, family, praying for us, for Rex to stay inside, and we 100 per cent believe that it was an answer to prayer.”
The couple tried unsuccessfully for four years to fall pregnant.
Mrs Pugh’s diagnosis with polycystic syndrome made it difficult, so they started on medication that manually released eggs.
On the second round Rex was conceived.
“It is a huge blessing to be at this point with a healthy, happy baby boy.
“He is amazing, the most chilled out kid.
“Nothing really seems to phase him too much, he is just a joyous spirit … it is awesome to see how he just wants to explore the world,” she said.
“I think this has taught us to stop and enjoy him.
“If Rex is all we get, which is millions more than we thought we were ever going to, we just want to enjoy it.”
