Appropriately named, 6-week old Hope is miraculously alive thanks to her mother who took quick action when she sensed that something was wrong in her pregnancy.Three weeks before Jennifer Juarez's due date, this pregnant woman went to her midwife, troubled by a bad feeling when she realized that her unborn baby had suddenly stopped kicking.
The baby had suffered a fetal-maternal hemorrhage, and doctors estimate that baby Hope had lost almost 80% of her blood supply. A life-saving emergency C-section allowed physicians to give Hope a blood transfusion and deliver her safely. The infant girl's very pale, ghost-like coloring at birth was the result of her being born with almost no blood in her body.
Why fetal hemorrhages happen is somewhat of a medical mystery: they often simply take place spontaneously. Hope is only the second-known child born in recent years to survive this condition. Doctors believe this infant girl would have died after just a few more hours in her mother's womb.
Motherly instinct made all of the difference in Hope's survival.