“I just had so much confidence that they were looking out for my well-being and my son's well-being.”
Hayley doesn’t let her diabetes define her or keep her from living the life she wants. So, even though her condition would make it difficult for her to become a mother, she was still determined.
“It was always a dream of mine to become a mom,” she says. “There was no other option for me.”
Hayley told her ob-gyn about her hopes to become a mother and was referred to UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital’s Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine (MFM). The division cares for patients with high-risk pregnancies.
Although Hayley’s diabetes would make any pregnancy high-risk, her care team at MFM encouraged her to try for it. And when she became pregnant, they helped her manage both her diabetes and her pregnancy.
“The care that they took of me and my diabetes, it was wonderful,” Hayley said. “I never had such good control of my blood sugar as I did whenever I started to see them. So I was really impressed.”
At 28 weeks pregnant, Hayley was diagnosed with severe preeclampsia. But although that caused some scary moments, she believed in her care team.
“I felt so safe,” she says. “I just had so much confidence that they were looking out for my well-being and my son's well-being, that I kind of just let them control what was going on.”
Hayley delivered a baby boy, Nino, at 34 weeks. After a short stay in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), both mother and son returned home healthy.
A few years later, Hayley became pregnant again. Once again, she turned to MFM for support during pregnancy. And although she was diagnosed at 34 weeks with mild preeclampsia, her care team again made sure she got the support she needed. She delivered another baby boy, Enzo, at 36 weeks.
Today, Hayley has a happy family with two young boys. And she believes the care she received from MFM helped her get to where she is now.
“It’s not what you do, it's how you do it,” she says. “That's how I would describe that whole group. They have a passion for their people, and they love you.”
At UPMC, Life Changing Medicine means giving our patients the care they need to make their dreams possible.
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