Pictured: Tyra (left) and Louise Cooper-Heys with 13-month-old son Malachi.
A couple who took it in turns to get pregnant feel their family is complete after going through many hurdles including miscarrying twins before the birth of their daughter.
Baby Sienna-Marie was born 14 weeks early at the Lancashire Women and Newborn Centre at Burnley General Teaching Hospital and is currently being looked at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
Same sex couple Louise and Tyra Cooper-Heys, who live in Church, near Accrington and are both nursery managers, wanted a family and decided to take turns carrying a baby.
Louise, 33, explains: “In some gay couples, only one of them wants to carry the baby, but we both wanted to have that experience.
“Initially, we both tried to get pregnant at the same time and decided whoever got pregnant first, the other one would stop trying – and that if it did happen to both of us at the same time, then that was meant to be.
“We used a website to find the donor and it took us six months to choose the donor we wanted after going through all the medical records.
“We both used the same donor so the children would be biologically related.
“My partner Tyra became pregnant first and we have a little boy Malachi – which is Hebrew for ‘My angel’ – and he is 13-months-old.”
Louise struggled to conceive and investigations showed she had endometriosis, a condition where tissue that behaves like the lining of the womb is found in other parts of the body.
Louise had surgery last July to clear the endometriosis and was told she had three months of trying to conceive and would then need a hysterectomy due to the endometriosis.
Louise says: “I tried to conceive and got pregnant but had a miscarriage at six-and-half weeks and then I lost twins at nine weeks of pregnancy.
“We were blessed with Sienna-Marie and I was nervous during the pregnancy after the miscarriages.”
Louise was 26-weeks pregnant and was meant to be going to see Take That in Manchester. However, the concert was cancelled because of the Manchester Arena bombing so she went to visit her sister in Manchester instead.
While she was there, she had a bit of a bleed followed by contractions and went into St Mary’s Hospital in Manchester where Sienna-Marie was born on May 29 weighing 2lbs.
She was on a ventilator for three days and then on Cpap to help her breathe and was doing well so was transferred to NICU at the Lancashire Women and Newborn Centre so she could be closer to home.
Sienna-Marie has been through ups and downs such as battling infections but is doing well despite being born so early.
Louise is full of praise for the NICU staff and says they show true dedication not just to the babies but the families too.
Louise explains: “The nurses are brilliant and they explain everything so well and their communication is wonderful.
“They don’t leave you in the dark about anything and they look after me and Tyra too. When our little boy comes in at weekends, they are great with him as well.
“Sienna-Marie’s due date was August 30 so she will be in neonatal for many more weeks yet.
“I am usually with her about 10 to 12 hours a day and the staff are so supportive and make me feel like a mum even though I can’t take my baby home yet.
“I get to cuddle Sienna-Marie and do skin-to-skin care and change her nappies.
“I am expressing milk so they can syringe-feed it to her and when she is well enough, I will look to breast-feed.
“Until you are in this situation, you don’t realise how hard the nurses work and how much day-to-day care they give all the babies.
“Sienna means ‘fighter’ and that is very appropriate for her. She is being looked after really well, but we can’t wait until she is well enough to bring home.
“We called her ‘Sienna-Marie’ after my mum Marie who died of throat cancer a few years ago.
“It is lovely that Tyra and I have both had the experience of pregnancy and birth and now we have our two beautiful children.
“We feel like our family is complete.”
Dr Naharmal Soni, consultant neonatologist at NICU, says: “Sienna has been through ups and downs which is normal in neonatal babies but is doing well.
“We see the emotions parents go through and sometimes there are highs and sometimes there are lows and we support them through these.
“We provide daily updates to parents and encourage breastfeeding as that is so good for the babies.
“Every member of the nursing team does their best to support parents through what can be an emotional time and keep them informed as to how their baby is doing.”