Sterilized grandmother calls her new baby ‘a little miracle’

November 17, 2009 by Shawn Douglas
Filed under: News

The sterilized mother of three became unexpectedly pregnant despite having her fallopian tubes cauterized and clipped.

Debbie Amos had her fair share of children by the age of 30. After having three children, she decided to have a sterilization operation.

Imagine her surprise when she found out that the operation, which was supposed to have a 99 percent success rate, had failed her; she was pregnant for the fourth time, 13 years after the operation.

“At the end of July, I started feeling tired and then felt movements in my stomach,” said Amos, 43, of Colchester, Essex.

“I thought I could feel something. I thought it was wind at first, but I was tired as well so I thought I better do a test. I did a pregnancy test, which was positive. I still didn’t believe it, and I had to sit down for about half an hour. I thought it must be a big mistake. When I showed my husband he said, ‘Whose is that?’ I didn’t really believe it until he came out.”

When Amos attempted to have her first child, she found out that she had trouble conceiving. At the age of 19, she began taking a fertility drug called Clomid to aid with conception. After having two children, Amos and her husband Melvyn decided they were done, and Amos discontinued the Clomid.

Debbie Amos said: “They said I wouldn’t fall pregnant without taking Clomid, so I didn’t take any precautions because I was off the drug. Then four years later I fell pregnant with Rebecca.”

Not wanting to take any more chances, she went to Colchester General Hospital to have the sterilization procedure. “‘I was doubly sterilized—my fallopian tubes were both cauterized and clipped, so I thought there was no way I could get pregnant again,” said Amos.

“And as you get older it is harder to conceive anyway, so it is the last thing I expected.”

The couple considered the option of filing suit against the hospital, but decided against it because they were given a 1 percent chance of the procedure failing.

Despite the unplanned pregnancy, their healthy new baby, Connor, was delivered without problems.

Amos said: “We were very relieved he is fit and healthy. I didn’t have any tests as I didn’t know I was pregnant until so late on, and there were obviously added risks because of my age. When you think of all the things that could have gone wrong, he is just a little miracle.”

“We are getting used to the nappies and the lack of sleep—my husband has taken to it again and he is coping well. We wouldn’t change him for the world.”