Hello Mumma's! This weeks episode is with the lovely Sarah who is the Mom to 17 month old Ruby. Trigger warning - in this episode we discuss open heart surgery, hospital stays in NICU, PICU, SCBU & Starship so if this is triggering for you I would suggest skipping this episode.
Sarah, her partner Rupert & Ruby have been on a journey many of us cannot even fathom. After battling Hyperemisis Gravidarum "HG" in her pregnancy, at Sarah's 20 week scan it was discovered that there was something wrong with Ruby's heart. After the scans were looked over by her Obstetrician and what felt like the longest wait ever, Sarah & Rupert were told that Ruby had a Congenital Heart Disease "CHD" and Tetralogy of Fallot "TOF". CHDs affects 1 in every 100 births, Sarah shares with us her pregnancy experience, the conversations, tests and decisions that had to be made in the lead up to Ruby's birth.
After Ruby was born, Sarah shares the experience of what her fourth trimester was like - multiple hospital stays in NICU, SCBU, Starship, helicopter transfers, tests, scans, tubes - hardly the experience Sarah envisioned when she became pregnant. At 12 weeks old, Ruby had open heart surgery to correct the defect in her heart. Sarah takes us through this experience and what life is like for herself, Ruby & Rupert now - spoiler alert Ruby is a thriving, happy, little girl.
Sarah opens up about how this whole experience has impacted her own wellbeing including counselling and needing to go back on anti depressants as well as how it impacted her & Rupert's relationship. Sarah found her heart family village online through community groups both within in NZ and overseas. Heart Kids NZ is a nonprofit organisation in Aoteroa that provides lifelong support to the children, teens, adults and whanau impacted by childhood heart conditions and has been an incredibly important part of Sarah's village.
All she wanted when she was pregnant was to speak to other families going through something similar who had come out the other side. Sarah's hope in sharing her story is to both raise awareness of CHDs but also so that anyone going through something like this knows that they are not alone.
Sarah is happy for people to connect with her on Instagram if they want to chat and you can find her here . I hope you love this very special episode Mumma's and if you do please rate & review on whichever platform you choose to listen on and follow along on socials @bumptomum.podcast.
