In April 2021, Nicole Atzeni found out she was pregnant with her first baby. She and her husband were excited to start their family.
Other than some morning sickness, the pregnancy was uneventful. When Atzeni was 16 weeks along, she noticed some bleeding. She went to the Emergency Department (ED) at University of Utah Hospital to make sure everything was okay.
“The ultrasound showed that our baby boy had died,” Atzeni said. “That was really awful to see.”
Atzeni and her husband were devastated. They were instructed to go home and return to the hospital two days later for a dilation and curettage (D&C) procedure to deliver the baby and clean any extra tissue from Atzeni’s uterus.
Unfortunately, Atzeni gave birth to her baby at home. She and her husband returned to the ED.
“They had me sitting in a wheelchair in the waiting room, and I was bleeding all over and it was dripping from the wheelchair,” she said. “We brought Baby P with us—that’s what we named him—so that the doctors could do testing to try and figure out why we lost him.”
Atzeni’s husband held Baby P while waiting to see the doctor. Atzeni then had a D&C in the ED and was sent home with pain medication. Testing on Baby P was inconclusive.
“They call it bad luck,” Atzeni said. “We just say he was perfect, and it wasn’t our time.”
Personalized Care Leads to New Beginnings
Atzeni’s gynecologist referred her to Robert Silver, MD. Silver has been in the division of maternal-fetal medicine at University of Utah Health for more than 30 years. As chair of the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, his clinical and research interests include pregnancy loss and stillbirth.
A month after losing Baby P, Atzeni met with Silver.
“Dr. Silver is my favorite person,” Atzeni said. “The first thing he said to me was, ‘We are going to figure this out and you are going to have lots of babies.’ He is just an angel.”
Since nothing was wrong with Baby P, Silver decided to run some tests on Atzeni to make sure there wasn’t anything they had missed.
“The whole experience with Dr. Silver was very patient-led. [Dr. Silver] would always tell me, ‘You’re the boss’ and make sure I had everything I needed to feel reassured.”
Over the next several months, Atzeni and her husband tried to get pregnant with no success. Atzeni visited the Utah Center for Reproductive Medicine (UCRM), where specialists treat male and female infertility and work with patients to create customized, affordable treatment plans. Atzeni had testing done that revealed scar tissue in her uterus.
“I had a procedure to remove the scar tissue, and we were good to start trying again,” she said. “We tried more, and it still wasn’t happening.”
Atzeni and her husband decided to try Intrauterine insemination (IUI). Unfortunately, after three attempts, doctors informed Atzeni that she was reacting too strongly to the ovulation medication.
“I broke down and couldn’t do it anymore,” Atzeni said. “We decided to do IVF.”
In vitro fertilization (IVF) is a treatment to fertilize eggs outside of a woman’s body in a laboratory. The goal is to produce embryos, then place the best available embryo back into a woman’s uterus.
Atzeni started the process in January 2023 and had an embryo implanted into her uterus in April. Soon after, she found out she was pregnant.
“I was so happy and terrified at the same time,” she said. “It was the strangest feeling.”
At seven weeks along, the IVF team at UCRM transferred Atzeni to Silver.
“I bled at my first appointment with Dr. Silver,” she said. “He immediately got me in for an ultrasound to make sure the baby was okay, and luckily he was.”
From that point forward, Atzeni saw Silver every week until 39 weeks. She had a bedside ultrasound at every visit.
“Dr. Silver let me decide how often I wanted to come in for appointments,” she said. “He always made sure I was feeling good mentally and emotionally through to the very end of the pregnancy.”
For Silver, individualized care is the most important thing he can provide for each of his patients.
“Families need to know that we do all that we can to individualize the care for each of our patients, depending upon their medical and emotional needs."
Welcoming Baby Edo After Loss and a Journey of Grief
Atzeni had an induction scheduled so Silver could be there to deliver the baby. However, Atzeni went into labor the day she was scheduled to go into the hospital.
“Everything happened so fast,” she said.
On December 29, 2023, Edoardo Glenn Atzeni was born. Although Silver wasn’t there for the birth, he came to visit the very next day.
“Over the next few days, Dr. Silver came to check on me and baby Edo a few more times,” Atzeni said. “It meant so much to have him there, after everything we had been through.”
Atzeni will always mourn the loss of her first baby. The grief didn’t go away after Edo was born.
“It’s strange, and I think a lot of people just think you’re healed since you got a healthy baby,” she said. “But I felt a lot of grief for Baby P after Edo was born.”
Although the grief will always be there, Edo has helped heal Atzeni and her husband.
“He is our everything, he is our best thing. He has healed us a lot and we couldn’t love him more.”
More about the Utah Pregnancy After Loss Program
The Utah Pregnancy After Loss Program sees patients who have experienced the following:
• Stillbirth for any reason
• Newborn death for any reason
• Termination of pregnancy for medical or obstetric reasons
• Recurrent or other types of pregnancy loss
• Placental disorders including preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction
• Preterm birth due to medical or pregnancy problems
For those whose loss has just happened, the trauma is real, with answers and support hard to find. For those who seek another baby after loss, the road to a successful pregnancy is often a terrifying and lonely journey.
Families who have suffered loss, major pregnancy complications, and families who hope for another baby deserve cutting-edge medical care. They also often need mental health support in ways unique to their experience
