Woman Who Had 18 Miscarriages In 20 Years Finally Gives Birth At 48 (Photos)

The woman identified as Louise Warneford revealed her joy of finally getting to become a mother after 18 miscarriages and 20 years of trying.

According to Daily Mail UK, 48-year-old Louise and her 55-year-old husband, Mark, had endured about 16 years of spending £80,000 (about N38 million) on In vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatments, before the actual cause of her miscarriages were discovered.

In 2010, doctors discovered she had 'killer cells', meaning her own body was destroying her embryos, and advised her to try a donor embryo instead. The suggestion worked, as Louise tried one more time in 2015, became pregnant and welcomed her son after successfully carrying him for 37 weeks (81/2 months).

Louise Warneford finally experienced childbirth at 48 years.


The couple who are overjoyed to be parents to their son who they named William, say they are often mistaken to be his grandparents.

Speaking on her experience, Louise said:

"Mark and I had been trying for a baby since I was 32. We'd suffered 18 miscarriages and spent £80,000 but looking at William now, it was all worth it. I'm not the spring chicken that I used to be and it does take me a while to chase him around the floor but it's worth it."

Even though Mark had had a vasectomy while in a previous relationship, the couple who met in 1999 decided to find alternative means of actualising Louise's dreams of having a baby.

"We went to a fertility specialist to find out about the quickest way of conceiving, and they suggested a sperm insemination. So we found a donor who had the same attributes as Mark and I, and we went along with the process. I fell pregnant a number of times with the insemination, but every single time I ended up losing the baby around the 14-week scan mark as they couldn't find the heartbeat.

Each time I got my hopes up and thought that "this was it" and I was going to have the perfect family I'd always wanted - I couldn't stop crying every time I miscarried. We decided to try IVF but despite falling pregnant a number of times, we always lost the baby. It was a complete mystery why my body kept rejecting my baby at just a few weeks old but it was heart-breaking every single time."


Baby William was born after his mother suffered 18 miscarriages.

Louise narrated how she felt after several tries to have a child. She said:

"There is no grief that can compare to losing a much loved and wanted baby - all your hopes and dreams are shattered. We'd even tried using an egg donor but that failed as well.

I met a specialist in maternal medicine called Doctor Shehata and he told me that I had killer cells in my body, which was why I couldn't hold a child. I told him I'd had 18 miscarriages and that I couldn't go through that again but he gave me the courage to have one more try.

I didn't do anything until four years later, when I was 47 and I said to Mark that we had to try one more time before I was 50. This time, because I was too old for certain clinics in the UK, I decided to do my own research and had embryo donation in the Gynem Clinic in Prague."


Baby William was born at 37 weeks through a planned Caesarean section.

Louise continues, saying she didn't enjoy her pregnancy moments out of constant fear that she could miscarry it:

"He was born at 37 weeks through a planned C-section because I was told that there was a problem with the placenta. Although I couldn't enjoy my pregnancy, because I was constantly scared that I was going to lose him, it was completely worth it for my dream baby.

It was the toughest time in my life, but it's so worth it for our dream baby. We're a perfect family now and I finally feel complete - we even have a grandchild now, and at just ten months old, William, became an uncle.

It was very expensive, and we spent £80,000 in total for fertility treatment, but we just put our life on hold for our dream baby. We saved the money over the 16 years of trying, and just didn't go out very often - we were very frugal, but we wanted a child more than we wanted money.

We want people to know that it is doable and despite my multiple miscarriages and rounds of IVF, our dream baby was achievable."


The happy parents spent about N38 million while trying to have a baby.

While speaking on the Warneford case, Mr Hassan Shehata, who is the founder and director of the Centre for Reproductive Immunology and Pregnancy, said:

Natural killer (NK) cells are subtypes of white blood cells which are responsible for body defence. The NK cells are known to attack foreign bodies such as viruses independently and directly hence the name natural killer cells. In some women these NK cells can wrongly identify pregnancy as a foreign threat and attack it causing a miscarriage.

In Louise's

case, she was a brave young lady who persevered with the unusually high number of miscarriages where she and her partner have faced several failures and heart aching outcomes. However, I recall she was quite determined to succeed and I thought both her and her partner deserve a chance to be parents. I was very pleased to have managed to help them succeed and be part of such an incredible journey."