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‘So rare it isn’t spoken about’: Aberdeenshire mum’s near-fatal abdominal ectopic pregnancy

Maria Craib and her husband Gary at William's memorial holding up a stone which says "In loving memory of a truly cherished son, always in our hearts"
Maria Craib and her husband Gary Craib lost their fifth child in an abdominal ectopic pregnancy. Picture by Kath Flannery

Maria Craib almost died from a ruptured uterus after her rare abdominal ectopic pregnancy was misdiagnosed.

Ectopic pregnancies usually occur in one of the fallopian tubes but, in Maria’s case, her son William Leslie Craib was found in her abdomen.

The 40-year-old mum-of-four was expecting her fifth child in 2019.

And in the early stages she had no reason to suspect anything was wrong.

“I fell pregnant and had pretty much a normal first three months of pregnancy,” she recalled.

“I went for my first scan and they couldn’t find a pregnancy.

“They could only see what they described as an empty sack in my womb.”

‘I was convinced I’d felt movements’

Maria was told she was likely having a missed miscarriage, but her hormone levels remained really high in the weeks that followed.

Two weeks later, this diagnosis was confirmed and Maria, with husband Gary, were sent home “to let nature take its course”.

“I was really confused,” she said.

“I was convinced that I’d felt the movements – it really did mess with my head.

“I was convinced I had a baby in there.”

Maria Craib and husband Gary holding hands and walking through the garden
Maria Craib with her husband Gary Craib. Picture by Kath Flannery

‘Things went very, very wrong’

After a couple of weeks, Maria went back as she didn’t “automatically miscarry” as planned.

She was offered a medical procedure, which later had devastating consequences.

“We went into hospital and they gave me the medicines that we needed and we were told we needed to stay in until it was complete,” she explained.

“Things went very wrong at that point. They couldn’t understand what was going on.

“My blood pressure started plummeting, which isn’t what would normally happen.

“Although I was bleeding heavily as a result of the medication, there was no passing of a baby.

“We were there all day, they suggested we might have to go for a surgical examination just to clean out the womb, but before that I became very unwell.”

‘I said ‘There’s a baby’ – and passed out again’

In the hours that followed, Maria found herself drifting in and out of consciousness.

And one particular symptom set alarm bells ringing for her consultant at Dr Gray’s hospital in Elgin.

This chain of events led to medics finding her abdominal ectopic pregnancy.

She said: “I complained of a pain in my shoulder and he asked me to repeat myself.

“I thought I’d just pulled it because I’d had niggle pain there on and off.

“But it got really painful at this point and he demanded that scanners were brought in.

“Several midwives came in and they began scanning my stomach, they found a lot of internal bleeding and couldn’t figure out why.

“Eventually he did locate baby ribs, which were William’s ribs. But he wasn’t in my womb, they found him in my abdomen.”

Maria added: “I’ll never forget the moment they found the baby. I’d been unconscious and I opened my eyes.

“I said ‘There’s a baby’ and they said ‘Yes there is,’ and I passed out again.”

William was ‘absolutely perfect’

Maria underwent an emergency laparotomy – where her abdomen was cut into – and received blood transfusions as her life was hanging in the balance.

Her uterus had ruptured, leaving her on the brink of death.

“He’d been attached to the back of my uterus from an old C-section scar from my first baby 14 years ago,” Maria said.”

“As an implanted embryo, he passed through my section scar.

“They managed to save me, stem the bleeding and give me the blood transfusions, but sadly William died as soon as my uterus ruptured.”

William was aged between 15 and 16 weeks, and Maria says he was “absolutely perfect” and a “beautiful boy”.

Maria and Gary Craib at William's memorial. Picture by Kath Flannery
Maria and Gary Craib at William’s memorial. Picture by Kath Flannery

‘Horrendous flashbacks’

Since losing William and enduring a near-death experience, Maria has suffered post-traumatic stress and anxiety, experiencing “horrendous” flashbacks.

But with counselling and medication, she feels she is making good progress, and will never forget the “dignity and compassion” hospital staff showed her and William.

Around one in 90 pregnancies in the UK are ectopic, according to the NHS.

But Maria wants to raise awareness of its rarer forms, including abdominal ectopic pregnancy, which many are unaware of.

She added: “There’s loads of possibilities for an ectopic pregnancy, the problem is some of them are so rare they aren’t spoken about.

“When you go to your midwives appointment, they do mention ectopic, but they speak of tubal ectopic and give you the symptoms of that.

“Because my baby was in my abdomen, I didn’t have any lower abdominal pain because it wasn’t growing in my tube, I was able to grow a fully formed baby.

“I do think mums and staff need to be more aware of the rarer kinds.”

Read more:

Aberdeen mum’s baby joy after losing fallopian tube during ectopic pregnancy

Laura Kenny endured ‘hardest few months’ with miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy

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