Today, February 27, International Transplant Day is celebrated and we wanted to commemorate it by giving voice to Belinda López, a young mother who received a kidney from her husband, at only 23 years old.
Four years later, he is happy with his little Aurora Sophie, only 14 months old. She recognizes that there is very little information on pregnancy in young women who have been transplanted and that is why she wants to explain to those who want to have a family that it can be done, even if it involves risks. She is a very clear example.
“On May 29, 2015 my life completely changed”
That was the date on which her husband Luis’s kidney was transplanted and she regained her health. He was 23 years old and two days before his 24th birthday, he was discharged from the hospital.
To achieve this, he had to pass 15 months of compatibility tests, dialysis, psychological tests and judges.
Belinda was seven years old when she was detected with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, which involves being always tired from losing protein in the urine.
He says that over time this disease turned into chronic kidney failure, which led to dialysis and later transplantation.
They are currently investigating the reason for this disease and how to combat it.
But that is behind us. At 27 years old, she claims to be totally happy with her husband Luis, with whom she has been married for seven years, “a wonderful man, who not only gets involved in everything with the girl, but thanks to him I am here today and we can be parents of Aurora Sophia “ .
“I’ve always wanted to be a mother”
“I love children and I have always wanted to be a mother, but I guess I made the firm decision when I realized that I wanted to be with children all the time,” says Belinda who adds:
“I would leave the house and see children everywhere, pregnant women and I would have a stupid face, thinking ‘I want to too’. In addition, it coincided that my latest analyzes had turned out great.”
So he explains that he decided to bring it up to his doctor. She had to make several changes in medication so that it would not interfere with the pregnancy, in addition to previous tests and an ultrasound to make sure everything was fine. And he jumped into the pool, “with some fear.”
“I think that all women feel a little fear when we decide to have a baby. In my case, what worried me most was that the medication would cause an abortion or prevent me from staying, having an abortion and not being able to get pregnant.”
She also admits that she had to convince her husband, since “at first he didn’t really want to be a father, because he thought it was going to change our lives a lot and he didn’t know if he was ready, but in the end I convinced him .”
High-risk pregnancy, but no problems
This young mother explains that her pregnancy went well, despite being classified as high risk from the beginning because she was transplanted, with the normal symptoms and discomfort of a pregnancy.
The only differences, he explains, were in having to take medication and take care of himself a little more, paying special attention to diet and weight :
“Suddenly gaining weight is never good when you are transplanted, because the kidney has to work much more, so it is better to gain progressively. I gained about 11 or 12 kilos, just enough for my girl to grow, but without overdoing it. “.
She acknowledges that she had a bad time with her diet, since in order not to risk having toxoplasmosis (which had not happened), she could not eat sausage, ham or tuna, and only pasteurized dairy throughout her pregnancy. “When I gave birth, I took it out by eating ham.”
It also points out that it is important to control tension , since being transplanted is at greater risk of suffering pre-eclampsia and having a premature delivery.
Risks in pregnancy for mother and baby
Belinda points out that the simple fact of being a woman with a kidney transplant and taking medication regularly is enough for a high-risk pregnancy to be classified, even if everything goes well and without complications.
Among the risks for the mother: increased protein loss, pre-eclampsia, loss of kidney function, emergency cesarean section, or possible rejection of the transplanted kidney. “But almost all of them can be controlled: with medication, taking care of blood pressure and food, the risk decreases a lot”.
The conditions of a transplanted woman can also influence the baby being born with low weight, having a premature delivery, poisoning from the medication or a slower development.
“My doctor informed me of all the risks and that they did not have to appear, since they do many controls to make sure that nothing irregular happens. To many people it may seem like a very large list, but removing some risks that we only have the transplanted ones, the rest are the same as assumed by anyone who wants to be a mother . “
“It’s hard to do so many tests, but it’s worth it”
As soon as the pregnancy test came back positive, Belinda had to undergo tests every 15 days and analytics once a month , in addition to the usual gynecological check-ups.
But according to his account, it was after eight months that everything intensified the most: he had tests and consultations practically every week, both for gynecology and nephrology. So to the usual tests in the last weeks of pregnancy, we add the fetal monitors once a week.
As for the number of ultrasounds, “I only had one more than the usual three, so there wasn’t much difference.”
“Pregnancy is a wonderful experience”
Aurora’s mother admits that she did not enjoy the first few months very much “because I couldn’t believe she was pregnant” , but not the following months.
She affirms that what worried her most, like all expectant mothers, is that everything went well during the delivery and, fortunately, there were no complications.
Her daughter was born by vaginal delivery with an epidural and “it was quite fast, with five pushes my baby came out” although she explains that the dilation became eternal, tired and involved a small scare.
“I was admitted 48 hours before delivery and I was in the dilation room for practically 14 hours. At the last minute, when I was already fully dilated, we had a little scare, because every time I pushed, Aurora’s heart rate dropped. Luckily everything went well and it was not necessary to perform an emergency cesarean section. “
She explains that already in the delivery room she began to push and they discovered that the reason why the baby’s frequency dropped was that it came with a cord loop.
“What scared me the most was that they would have to do a cesarean, since my transplanted kidney is also on one side of my abdomen and I didn’t want any more complications. Everything went well.”
Postpartum and breastfeeding, without problems
“I have good memories of my postpartum. During the first week I was in discomfort from the episiotomy, but I immediately recovered physically and did not need any extra care, just a good diet and start doing moderate exercise about a month after giving After two months I recovered my normal figure, without having to do any type of diet “.
This is how Belinda remembers her postpartum, similar to that of the rest of the mothers, with the only difference that she could not stay at home enjoying her little girl and, after the month of delivery, she had to go to nephrology every week “to do tests since the first one after delivery was positive for kidney-associated antibodies. “ But she explains that everything quickly turned negative and right now ” I’m the same as when I got pregnant or even better .”
It was also clear to her that she wanted to breastfeed her baby from the moment she got pregnant, as long as the doctors allowed me. And he was able to do it.
“The first month cost us a bit, I had some cracks and at first it was a bit painful because I did not know how to place it correctly, but with a little effort and patience everything has gone very well.”
She made it a goal to breastfeed Aurora for at least the first six months, but she has far exceeded it, since at 14 months she is still feeding her breast milk, although they are in the weaning process.
“We all deserve to have a family”
Belinda recognizes that there are risks in pregnancy when you are transplanted, but “it is not as black as it is painted.”
“If you take good care of yourself, have your doctors at all times and follow their recommendations, nothing should go wrong.”
The insecurity blames the ignorance that exists on the subject, which makes the woman think that it is impossible to have a child, but it is not like that:
“We have to understand that thanks to the transplant we can regain our health and lead a completely normal life. Yes, we can, we are not second-degree or disabled people as they make us understand.”
In fact, she confesses that Luis and she would love to increase the family “when our little girl grows up a little more and starts going to school, as long as my doctors allow me, as long as everything continues as well as now”.
She admits that she wants to continue working from home as long as her job allows it, “so I can spend more time with my girl .” And, in her spare time, she has decided to help other transplanted women who want to be moms like her, through her blog ‘Nada más que moms’.
Photos | Courtesy of Belinda López, author of the blog nadamasquemamas.com
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