Wallasey dialysis patient shocks doctors after giving birth to healthy baby girl

Dec 14 2011 Birkenhead News

A WALLASEY woman on the organ transplant list has beaten the odds by giving birth to a healthy baby girl.

Alison Kirk, 28, fell pregnant as she was desperately waiting for a new kidney.

She has been on dialysis every other day of her life since the age of 11 and women with her health problems rarely have children.

But despite the odds hospital staff said little Gracie Mae is doing well.

Alison’s Consultant at Liverpool Women’s Hospital, Steve Walkinshaw, said records show only 90 women in the world became pregnant whilst on dialysis between 2002 and 2008 – and only between half and three quarters gave birth successfully.

Alison said: “It is very rare for someone with my illness, called cystinosis, to give birth but the hospital staff were amazing.

“I had to have four hours of dialysis every day throughout the pregnancy which was tough, but it was worth it. My partner Michael is so happy and grateful to the people who helped us.”

Gracie Mae was just 3lbs 10oz when she was born on November 21, and was 10 weeks premature.

But she is now out of an incubator and in a cot at the hospital where she is being kept under observation.

Alison has returned home but goes to see her new arrival every day with partner and carer Michael Scott, 25.

The new mum lost a child in 2005 after 24 weeks of pregnancy. Her little boy, Jack, lived for just 12 hours.

During her latest pregnancy Ms Kirk was also suffering from a condition called placenta praevia, when the placenta grows in the lowest part of the womb and covers the opening to the cervix. These can lead to bleeding.

Mr Walkinshaw said Alison had put her own life at risk to make sure Gracie Mae was born, adding: “Pregnancy in women treated with renal dialysis is rare. I have never come across one before.

“Alison presented a real challenge to the team with her need for very frequent dialysis, her past history of a very premature baby and the presence of placenta praevia, which carries a risk of massive bleeding during pregnancy.

“The combination of risks undoubtedly put Alison's life in danger and meant she had to spend the final weeks of her pregnancy in hospital.

“The successful outcome here is a testament to the care provided by a number of doctors, nurses and midwives in both hospitals and shows what can be achieved in modern maternal medicine.”