My name is Angela and I have been a qualified midwife since 2008 at the Birmingham Womens Hospital. Prior to this I was a nurse working mostly in A & E at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. I have loved working as both a nurse and a midwife and have been very privileged to work amongst amazing teams.
We have 4 children, our eldest being 5 years old and our youngest being 11 months.
As a family we were faced with congenital CMV with our last baby, George. We were identified at 24 weeks into this pregnancy as having CMV, it was then highlighted that when looking back at my booking bloods that this was a primary infection that most possibly occurred during my 10th to 14th week of pregnancy. We were referred very efficiently and received excellent care from the fetal medicine team at the Birmingham Womens Hospital.
What followed was a scary (even for a midwife) few months of monitoring, scans, uncertainty, and lots of choices and decisions to be made. Our baby boy was born at 37 weeks and tested at birth, which confirmed Congenital CMV, therefore many tests were carried out and a cascade of referrals were made. It was a scary time for all of us, but thankfully other than some brain calcifications noted on USS at birth, our baby boy George is doing very well.
We were told by our consultant that he is a very lucky boy as, at this stage, he appears to be unaffected. He will continue to be monitored for any symptoms that could arise due to the Congenital CMV which brings much comfort to us. We are just so grateful for all the help and support we have been offered and most importantly that our beautiful baby boy is doing well. No one knows what the future holds for him just yet but we are very grateful for what we have right now and as a family will face any challenges that come our way knowing we have great support.
Ours is a positive story which I was eager to share and so I joined CMV Action as a Trustee this year 2020 and will continue to support CMV Action in anyway possible in an attempt to educate about and eradicate CMV.