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A woman prepped for surgery to have her ovaries removed discovered she was pregnant

A woman who accepted she was infertile after years of trying discovered she was pregnant - while being prepped for surgery to have her ovaries removed.

Caroline Darlington, 39, and husband Roy, 48, tried to have children for years - even turning to IVF - and accepted their family was complete with their adopted son, now six.

The stay-at-home mum suffered with excruciating endometriosis and a cyst, and reluctantly decided to have her last ovary removed.

In a final scan to check her womb health before surgery, the sonographer made an unexpected discovery.

Caroline was 16 weeks pregnant with her "miracle" first biological child.

And it never would have happened if Covid hadn't postponed her ovary op just long enough for her to fall pregnant.

Jorge Albert Darlington was born last month (29/3).

Caroline from Warrington, Cheshire, said: "I had a scan, and the nurse told me 'your ovary looks fine, but you're actually pregnant.'

"My stomach had been swollen but I just assumed it was the cyst growing.

"I had a mask on when I found out, so you couldn't see my full facial expression, but you can imagine it was a bit of a shock.

"I remember thinking 'Oh my god, what is my husband going to say!'

"We were both in complete shock for a few days,

"We feel our new arrival is a miracle, that would never had happened if there hadn't been a pandemic."

Caroline and Roy married in 2001, moved to Germany for his work in the army, and one year later they started trying for a family.

She said: "I've always wanted children, ever since I was a little girl and played with dolls,

"I trained as a nursery nurse so I have always been around children."

After coming off the pill, Caroline's periods were irregular and she eventually discovered she had polycystic ovary syndrome - a disorder where the ovaries may fail to regularly release eggs.

She underwent nearly two years of investigations and different treatments but she still didn't fall pregnant.

She said: "It definitely had both a physical and psychological toll on me because even with all the treatments, they still couldn't tell me why it wasn't happening for us."

In 2004, Caroline was referred to Hammersmith IVF Hospital for a course of IVF, but it failed the day she took her pregnancy test when she started to bleed.

Caroline said: "It was an awful time. I was traumatised really. You just thought it was going to work and obviously it didn't.

"After that we kind of had a break and decided that we weren't going to have children as I didn't want to keep putting my body through all the hormones."

In 2007, Caroline was rushed to hospital with extreme abdominal pains, which turned out to be a ruptured ovarian cyst.

She said: "They rushed me into the theatre and immediately had to clear up the internal bleeding."

The following year, the exhausted couple moved back to the UK, and decided not to go ahead with any more fertility treatments.

In 2015, Caroline and operations manager Roy adopted a 10-month-old little boy.

The happy mum said: "I had watched a few programmes on the telly about adoption and got my husband to watch them afterwards.

"When he did he said 'why not give it a go?', and so we started the process!"

It took two years for them to welcome their first son, now six, and they thought that their little family was complete.

Watch: Lauren Pope - "I really believe knowledge is power when it comes to birth"

On Christmas day in 2016 Caroline suffered a second ruptured ovarian cyst.

She said: "They assured me after that that it was very unlikely to happen again!

"I lost about two pints of blood and one of my ovaries was removed- it was hugely traumatic.

"I felt more terrible for my son, though, because it was his Christmas day that was being ruined."

Caroline was then diagnosed with endometriosis, a condition where tissue similar to the womb lining begins growing in other places such as the ovaries.

It is thought over 10% of women worldwide have this condition that can affect fertility.

Caroline continued to be in a lot of pain and eventually made the decision to have her second ovary removed, which would make her infertile.

She said: "In the end I had to ring my consultant and tell him I couldn't continue with the pain and looking after my son who has complex needs - it was all too much."

She began pre-op prep in February 2020 - with the surgery due to follow very shortly after - but everything was put on hold when Covid hit.

Caroline was finally undergoing pre-op prep again in September 2020 when she found out she was 16 weeks pregnant.

She waited to tell Roy the news to his face, but when she got home he'd already guessed she was pregnant because he said he could hear her smiling down the phone.

Jorge arrived on March 29 2021 at Warrington General Hospital - where Caroline was due to have her ovaries removed - weighing a healthy 11lb 4oz .

The family are "very smitten".

"We feel grateful for our blessing and let people know out there that you should never give up hope!" she said.