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Mum’s immune system produces antibodies that attacked her unborn baby.

Laura Wilson’s body attacks her babies thinking they are foreign invaders. After trying for a third child Laura had to undergo eight months of treatment to suppress her immune system, to ensure baby Roma was born healthy, reports The Sun.

Laura’s second baby, son Raife, now two, had a rare and potentially life-threatening condition, which prompted her immune system to produce antibodies that attacked him.

The condition, neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia (or NAIT), meant Laura’s body saw her son as a harmful invader.

It meant Raife was born with a platelet count of just eight, compared to a normal newborn’s count of around 300.

While in the womb he suffered a bleed to the brain and consequently developed cerebral palsy, a result of the NAIT.

Laura, 28, was told that any future children she had with 30-year-old husband Andrew would have NAIT, leaving the couple devastated.

Her eight-year-old daughter from a previous relationship is healthy.

But now, after an incredibly tough pregnancy, where she spent eight months in bed, Laura has given birth to a healthy girl called Roma, now five months.

She’s looking forward to celebrating her first Christmas as a family of five – but admitted if she was to have a final, fourth, child she would likely use a surrogate.

“Roma is wonderful,” she said. “And Raife loves being a big brother.

“But it would be wrong to say the pregnancy with Roma was easy. It was exhausting.”

Laura said she felt guilty when Raife was diagnosed with NAIT – and even more shocked to learn it was her body that was attacking him.

“My baby was allergic to my body,” she said.

“My body, which was meant to nurture Raife, had attacked him.

“He had hardly any platelets in his blood because of me, so his blood couldn’t clot.

“I felt so guilty.”

I have never heard of this condition. Do you know someone with a similar story? 

Read her full story on The Sun.

Share your comments below. 

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  • Have heard of this before – hope mum and baby are now doing well.

    Reply

  • If the baby’s blood would clot at all I suspect he was Vitamin K deficient. They use that in patients that are known to bleed badly, sometimes before and during surgery. I personally know of a person with the problem.

    Reply

  • Aw bless ! No, I’ve never heard of neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia (NAIT) nor do I know someone with a similar story. It must be hard. So good to hear that Roma is good and healthy, that must have been the best reward after an uneasy pregnancy.

    Reply

  • I always thought that morning sickness was the body attacking the ‘invader’ so isn’t this old news?!

    Reply

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