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Australian actress and model Teresa Palmer has opened up about her struggle to conceive baby number two and the molar pregnancy that nearly saw her undergo chemotherapy.
While Palmer and her husband already have a 2-year-old son Bodhi together, they were desperate to have another as soon as humanly possible. “I welcomed and became excited at the idea of “2 under 2” and “3 under 5” Bring. It. On,” she said on her blog, Your Zen Mama.
However, the couple struggled to conceive. “I probably spent close to a thousand dollars on fancy ovulation packets, pregnancy tests, progesterone creams, fertility teas etc. yet month after month a very sad looking BFN (big fat no).”
After months of trying, Palmer finally had a positive reading on the pregnancy test. But in a cruel twist of fate, scans revealed that it was a molar pregnancy.
“We went to the doc for our heartbeat ultrasound. Bodhi was with us, we filmed with excitement. “I’m so sorry but there is no baby”. I stared at the screen, willing to see something,” she said.
“But they were going to be 26 months apart, baby was going to be a Taurus, I had my meeting with the doula scheduled for tomorrow?! My husband, Bodhi and I looked around that little room and all cried together. A Molar Pregnancy. Never heard of it. Basically everyone drops a crappy egg at one point in their life and my body did and of course it was the month we finally conceived.”
Palmer struggled with the diagnosis. Not only was she not pregnant, she had to deal with the possibility of having a cancerous growth and undergoing chemotherapy.
“So you have the symptoms of being pregnant but really it’s just a potentially cancerous tumor that grows, no baby,” she said.
“The word Chemotherapy got thrown at me as I was whisked in to an operating theatre. It was all a blur. I soldiered through the only way I’ve known how, I cried myself to sleep for a few days, sheepishly texted those I’d told and let them know that we were no longer expecting Bodhi’s new sibling.”
During her recovery, Palmer had weekly blood tests to monitor the likelihood of a tumour growing back. Fortunately, her HCG numbers dropped rapidly, meaning she didn’t need to have any chemo.
The good news to come out of this? After receiving a clean bill of health, Palmer took her doctors advice and decided to wean her son off breastfeeding, which in-turn increased her fertility.
And it worked! Palmer is now pregnant with her second child – a baby boy.
Congratulations to the Palmer-Webber clan!
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