A woman whose baby died just 18 hours after being born welcomed her “rainbow baby” in the same hospital on the same date—exactly a year later.
When 31-year-old Rachael Woolsey was pregnant with her first child, Zachary, in June 2017, she was so excited to start a new chapter of her life with her husband, Weston Woolsey.
When the couple went for their first ultrasounds, Ms. Woolsey said she expected “everything to be perfect.”
“During the ultrasound, I was talking to the tech and not looking at the screen,” she said. “All of a sudden, I heard his tone change, and my heart dropped. I instantly knew that something was wrong.”
The doctors told the expectant parents that Zachary’s brain was growing outside his skull. Upon hearing this, the parents were “in shock” and were just trying to process everything.
The couple was given the option to carry on with the pregnancy but claimed it was recommended they have an abortion.
“They recommended aborting as they knew it would not be a viable pregnancy,” Ms. Woolsey said. “We decided to carry on with the pregnancy even though at every appointment it was recommended to abort.”
When Ms. Woolsey was 36 weeks into her pregnancy, her water broke in the middle of the night. She was then rushed to St Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona.
Mr. and Ms. Woolsey welcomed Zachary on Feb. 19, 2018; he weighed 3 pounds 130 ounces.
“The hospital was shocked that he was alive when he was born,” Ms. Woolsey said. “It was [chaotic] we had family come in and out. We cried, we prayed, and I held him most of the time.”
Sadly, 18 hours later, Zachary passed away in Ms. Woolsey’s arms.
“We were in shock—it didn’t feel real,” Ms. Woolsey said. “When we left home empty-handed in the car, that was when it hit.
“I fell to my knees, and I just started bawling.”
Four months later, Ms. Woolsey got pregnant with her “rainbow baby”— a term used for a baby born following a miscarriage or stillbirth.
This was a textbook pregnancy according to Ms. Woolsey, however, she had complicated emotions to process.
“Part of me felt so guilty,” she said. Although she was excited to welcome a new child, her heart also felt torn apart as she was “traumatized” by her first birth.
Brynlee was born three weeks early on Feb. 19, 2019—exactly one year after Zachary was born—weighing 7 pounds 3 ounces at St Joseph’s Hospital, Phoenix, Arizona.
“It was crazy, the same resident who delivered Zachary was there one year later to deliver my daughter,” Ms. Woolsey said. “It was a day filled with mixed emotions.
“I felt guilt that I should be there and not giving birth to another baby.”
Brynlee is now 4 years old and is a healthy, happy toddler.
“We just had another baby born, Beckham, 11 months old, which was hard to process,” Ms. Woolsey said.
“I didn’t want to know the baby until the birth as I thought it would be really hard to have a boy and them not be Zachary.”
